The Québec labour market has changed significantly over the past few years, notably with the slower growth of the labour force, an aging population, higher education levels among workers and an increasing proportion of immigrants in the workforce. The IRSST is particularly interested in workers in vulnerable situations, including immigrant workers.

Immigrant workers are considered a more vulnerable population owing to, among other things, their proportionately higher-than-average presence in activity sectors that offer less favourable working conditions and greater exposure to the risk of injury. Language and cultural barriers sometimes compound these factors.

Health professionals and occupational health and safety practitioners working with immigrant workers who have sustained an occupational injury may lack the guidelines they need to tailor their actions to support the work reintegration process of these workers. The research team therefore sought to facilitate mutual understanding between health and OHS practitioners and workers from different cultures.

This awareness and information document derives from two previous projects: a knowledge summary titled The Notion of Ethnocultural Belonging in Rehabilitation Research and Intervention, published in 2012, and a study on the rehabilitation and return-to-work trajectories of immigrant workers who have sustained an occupational injury, published in 2017.