Starting Over: Health, Migration, and Belonging

Imagine arriving in a new country with hopes for a better life and opportunities for you and your family. It takes courage to leave behind a life well known and start over in a new country that promotes diversity, inclusion, and opportunities but also immense challenges. Social Determinants of Health play a vital role in shaping how people live their lives including access to care, social connection, and contribute to the communities around them. This blog series seeks to honour those journeys, sharing the voices of newcomers to foster understanding, empathy, and thoughtful dialogue about equality, access, and belonging.

Social Determinants of Health, highlighting the many factors that influence individual and community well-being. [All of Us Research Program]

Toronto: A City Shaped by Migration

Canada’s economy is built on the resilience of immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees who have faced uncertainty and even dangers in the hopes one day they will live a better, safer, and healthy life. Navigating a new system itself can be stressful but having to re-learn navigating a system, and for many in limited vocabulary in addition to already accumulated stressors. To see a doctor back home would be walking in a hospital or clinic and getting the appointment with the relevant doctor and receiving the needed services. However, in Canada, first one would need to see the family doctor to be referred to the appropriate doctor. This is an unfamiliar system to many; and in order to get an appointment for a family doctor, with limited English speaking vocabulary can be very time consuming and frustrating. Sometimes more frustrating for children when they need to step up as translators and interpreters for family members while themselves lacking medical knowledge. Also, it comes down to people having to make hard choices either taking the time to figure out this new system or working to earn and support the family due to financial instability. When in a new place, people are less likely to leave the house by themselves in fear of existing stressors like mental health, language barriers, street violence, gender safety, unfamiliarity with new systems, and fear of being discriminated against. 

But these are the communities that take on demanding, high risk, survival jobs to sustain themselves and their families. Whether in factories, construction, or frontline service work often filling gaps that others cannot or will not fill despite having high qualifications. Through this hard work, they not only provide for their families but also contribute to the strength and growth of this city. Newcomers are also known to more likely to get injured on the job than their Canadian counterparts and often take longer to recover, because of language barriers that make it difficult to navigate safety instructions, workplace rights, or even healthcare systems. 

The fear that comes with seeking care, the very system meant to help can feel like a risk. People worry that disclosing an illness or needing ongoing treatment could affect their chances of securing residency. Under current IRCC policies, applications can be denied if someone’s condition is seen as too costly or as creating longer wait times for Canadian services. This forces newcomers into difficult decisions between choosing their health and working towards securing stability. But postponing care until it becomes an emergency often comes at a painful cost. What begins as a small workplace injury that might have been a manageable issue can quickly escalate to an untreated sprain that can develop into a chronic condition, or get infected and require urgent care. By the time the injury reaches the emergency stage, it demands longer treatment, time off work, and more physical and emotional strain. Beyond the pain itself, there is also continuous anxiety of waiting in silence which may further develop into other mental health conditions.

Imagine trying to explain your symptoms when you don’t yet know the right words, or facing a waiting room and nothing feels familiar. Many newcomers skip care altogether in the fear of out-of-pocket expenses for basics like dental work, eye care, or medications or simply because they are uninsured or the hospital needs them to pay upfront while they can later file a claim. The stakes are too high. 

Sanctuary City: A Promise That Feels Out of Reach

In 2013, Toronto declared itself a "sanctuary city," a commitment to ensuring that all residents, regardless of immigration status, could access municipal services, including healthcare, without fear of deportation or discrimination. This declaration was intended to uphold the rights and dignity of all individuals, particularly those who are undocumented or in precarious immigration situations.

Protestors highlight the gap between Toronto’s Sanctuary City promise and the lived experiences of undocumented residents. [Photo: NOW Toronto]

However, recent research and reports indicate that this promise has not been fully implemented. A study by York University's Environmental Studies Faculty highlights the gaps in how Toronto's immigration policies are applied. It shows that even though the sanctuary city policy was meant to protect non-status residents, many still face obstacles when trying to access essential services. These barriers include fear of deportation, lack of awareness about available services, and inconsistent application of policies across different institutions.

A recent article from The Local further illustrates these challenges through the experiences of midwives, who provide care to uninsured immigrants, including pregnant women without health coverage. The article reveals that while midwives are legally allowed to care for uninsured individuals, the broader healthcare system is inconsistent on supporting this practice, leading to situations where individuals are denied necessary care or face overwhelming medical bills.

These reports show a hard truth, even though Toronto’s sanctuary city status is meaningful in name, it hasn’t yet made healthcare reliably accessible for everyone. The gap between what policies promise and what actually happens leaves many vulnerable people without the care they need, showing just how urgent it is to make the system truly inclusive.

Resilience in Everyday Life

And then there’s the emotional side, the weight of leaving home country, family, friends, and a community behind to start over, re-build a life while feeling isolated due to Canada’s individualist lifestyle. Mental health support exists, but stigma, cultural differences, and lack of culturally sensitive care often make it feel out of reach and the pressures accumulate.

Every day brings a mix of challenges and small victories. From navigating public transit, understanding healthcare forms, or connecting with neighbors, to discovering support systems that make life a little easier. There are moments of relief and joy too, like feeling safe to follow any beliefs, lifestyle choices, or finding community spaces where they can meet others who share similar experiences. These small but meaningful moments give a sense of safety and a reminder of why they immigrated to this country. 

Despite these challenges, newcomers show incredible strength and determination every day. They advocate for themselves and their families, build support networks, and create systems to meet community’s needs. In both small acts and big achievements, shaping a place where those who come after them can belong with, if not completely but feel slightly less isolated than they did. The restaurants, shops, and businesses they start, the jobs they take on, and the community services they build all contribute to making Toronto a global hub for opportunities.

Learning, Growing, and Integration through Education

For children and youth, integration often happens most visibly in educational institutions. Language becomes both a bridge and a lifeline, helping them form friendships, join communities, succeed academically, and support their families as cultural and linguistic translators. Children of immigrants often play a key role in bridging the two worlds, their family’s values, culture, traditions and the expectations of Canadian society.

Throughout my education at York University, accessibility and mental health supports were thoroughly promoted. Orientation sessions and workshops on well-being, consent, equity, and more reflected a real effort to create an inclusive space where students from all backgrounds could participate and feel supported. For newcomers and children of immigrants, these kinds of support are especially valuable. They provide access to conversations and resources that many of our parents never had, nor do they talk about.

This exposure not only equips young people to care for themselves but also empowers them to share knowledge with their families and communities. Learning about mental health, social responsibility, and inclusivity in a structured, supportive environment helps build resilience and belonging, qualities that shape not just individual journeys, but collective ones too.

Why Does This Series Matters?

What stands out most in the stories of immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees is their silent courage. Each trip to a clinic, every attempt to learn a new language, and every step toward school or work is an act of resilience. People navigating systems that aren’t perfect, carrying the weight of uncertainty, and still finding ways to support their families and communities.

This series is about giving those experiences a voice. By talking directly with community members about their healthcare journeys, we hope to uncover shared challenges, highlight moments of hope, and explore ways to make services more welcoming and fair. These stories go beyond policies and numbers. They show the human side of migration, the struggles, the small victories, and the determination it takes to build a life in a new country.

Through their experiences, we can see not only the obstacles faced, but also the incredible contributions they make to the city. From creating businesses to building community networks, their courage and hard work help shape the city into a place of opportunity and possibility. By listening closely, this series aims to celebrate their resilience, honor their journeys, and encourage conversations about how we can continue to build a more inclusive city for everyone.

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Where We Go Next

For the upcoming blog, we’ll take a closer look at the local services, resources, supports provided to newcomers in GTA. Using research and community insights, we hope to identify and highlight both the support systems available for newcomers and the areas that could use more care and attention.