Immigration as Pathogenic: A Systematic Review of the Health of Immigrants to Canada

This review investigates the health of immigrants to Canada by critically examining differences in health statusbetween immigrants and the native-born population and by tracing how the health of immigrants changes aftersettling in the country. Fifty-one published empirical studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. The analysisfocuses on four inter-related questions: (1) Which health conditions show transition effects and which do not? (2)Do health transitions vary by ethnicity/racialized identity? (3) How are health transitions influenced by socioeconomicstatus? and (4) How do compositional and contextual factors interact to affect the health of immigrants?Theoretical and methodological challenges facing this area of research are discussed and future directions areidentified. This area of research has the potential to develop into a complex, nuanced, and useful account of thesocial determinants of health as experienced by different groups in different places.