Grant: Operating Grant

Refugee women are considered a vulnerable group due to experiences that may have caused them harm before, during and after they arrive in Canada. Very little is known about the health of refugee mothers and their babies in Canada, and internationally. Ontario is uniquely positioned in Canada to conduct high quality research in this area because: 1) Ontario welcomes more refugees than any other province in Canada-between 2002 and 2011, 56% of all refugees to Canada arrived in Ontario; 2) To date, Ontario is the only province that has comprehensive health care data on the majority of refugee and non-refugee immigrants arriving in Ontario in the last 25 years; 3) This data is linked to data from hospitals which allows us to examine the health of 80 000, 480 000 and 2.6 million infants born to refugee, non-refugee immigrant and non-immigrant mothers (majority Canadian-born), respectively. The purpose of our research is to determine whether refugee women (and their babies) are more likely to be in poorer health than non-refugee immigrants and non-immigrants and what their health problems are. This research aims to inform initiatives that can reduce health risks among the most affected refugee groups. We have partnered with different organizations committed to refugee health care and wellbeing.