Summary

In recent years, Quebec’s immigrant population has grown substantially. The proportion of immigrants in the employed population increased by 8.3 percentage points between 2006 and 2021, rising from 10.9% to 19.2%. This increase in immigrant representation in the labour market raises various challenges in relation to their integration and their occupational health and safety (OHS), among other things. Despite the growing interest in OHS issues affecting people with immigrant backgrounds, there is no detailed statistical picture of compensated occupational injuries among immigrants in Quebec. In this context, this study aims to create a statistical profile of workplace injuries among immigrants admitted to Quebec since 1980 and to identify the groups of immigrant workers that are most at risk of suffering an occupational injury and the characteristics and consequences of these injuries.

Data from the 2016 census and the 2015 to 2017 Labour Force Survey (LFS) enabled us to document the socioeconomic characteristics of immigrant workers and of the jobs they hold. In addition, since the CNESST’s administrative data do not contain information that could allow us to identify workers with immigrant backgrounds, a matching process was applied, pairing data from the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) and the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) with the CNESST data.

The analyses first showed that immigrants have a higher graduation rate, are more likely to be overqualified, have a higher proportion of involuntary part-time work and of self-employment, and are less likely to be unionized than non-immigrants. These differences are likely to affect risks of workplace accidents.

From 2012 to 2017, the proportion of accidents accepted by the CNESST that happened to immigrants rose from 8.9% to 12.2% – greater than the increase in their representation in the employed population. In general, the characteristics of occupational injuries in immigrants are similar to those in non-immigrants. However, immigrants seem to have fewer short-term injuries and more long-term injuries than non-immigrants. The mean duration of compensation is reported to be longer for immigrants.

The results of negative binomial regressions on all accepted accidents reveal an increased risk of injuries in certain groups of immigrants, particularly recent arrivals (admitted less than five years ago). The analyses suggest that the risk of accident becomes increasingly similar to that for non-immigrants as the number of years since admission increases. Analyses were also done targeting only accidents with compensated lost time of more than 90 days. These cases, which are considered to be more severe, are less likely to be influenced by under-reporting. The results obtained using this subset of accidents, and a model that takes sex, industry and occupational category into consideration, suggest that immigrants have a greater risk of accidents than non-immigrants for all numbers of years since admission. Stratification analyses provide further information, showing that the results obtained depend on age and sex.

This report confirms certain conclusions established in the literature and adds some new perspectives. It highlights the fact that the differences observed between immigrants and non-immigrants, in terms of sociodemographic and employment characteristics and workplace accidents, mainly apply to recent immigrants. The number of years since admission therefore appears to be a more significant factor than immigrant status per se. Recent immigrants, and especially certain age groups, do in fact appear to be more at risk of workplace accidents than non-immigrants. This report also makes a significant contribution by underscoring the importance of targeting the most serious workplace accidents to analyze gaps between occupational injury risk in immigrants and non-immigrants. Focusing on the most serious cases allows us to reduce potential biases related to under-reporting of accidents by immigrant workers. In addition, it highlights the importance of adopting an intersectional perspective to understand workplace accidents among immigrants and propose guidelines to target interventions designed to reduce this risk.