Problematizing refugee claimant healthcare: critical policy analysis of the Interim Federal Health Program amendments of 2012

Abstract

This thesis is a critical policy analysis of the 2012 Interim Federal Health Program amendments. It examines how and why refugee claimants in Canada remain unable to enact their universal right to access healthcare. It is specifically concerned with the underlying meanings contained within Canadian refugee healthcare policy and considers how such policies construct the “problem” of refugee healthcare. Using the critical discourse analysis methodology of Carol Bacchi, it traces the genealogy of the 2012 amendments and their place within policy history. It reveals the power struggles and political conflicts that have shaped the discursive conditions for the development and operationalization of Canada’s unique policy. This work paves the way to alternatively represent the “problem” of refugee claimants' access to healthcare and more humanely approach it through policy. It concludes that a rights-based approach, driven by an adoption of international human rights conventions into law, is needed to address refugee claimants' access to healthcare.