Author: Joyce Mason, Audrey Laport, Ted McDonald, Paul Kurdyak, Claire de Oliveira
Year: 2026
Category:
Social Policy
Language requirements are an important part of Canada’s points‑based immigration system, and these requirements have become stricter over time. This article looks at how these changes relate to the way economic immigrants in Ontario use mental health care services.
Using administrative health care data from 1997 to 2015, the study compares economic immigrants from non‑Anglosphere countries (which do not have English as a national or official language) with groups not affected by the language policies – specifically, immigrants from Anglosphere countries and non-points-based immigrants (in the family class). Following periods when English requirements increased, mental health care use decreased for economic immigrants from non‑Anglosphere countries compared to Anglosphere immigrants, but increased compared to non‑points‑based immigrants. Their use of non‑mental health care services also increased compared to both groups after later policy changes.
These differences suggest that immigration policy changes may have later effects on immigrants and their families, underscoring the importance of policy makers considering potential downstream effects that extend beyond the labour market.
