Refugees and immigrants with HIV/AIDS in Canada: Stigma, discriminations and vulnerabilities

Of the total number of refugees and immigrants accepted into Canada every year, around half originate from Asia. Today, South Asians have become the second largest and most diverse visible minority group in Canada. South Asia has been facing an HIV pandemic, and an estimated six million people have been infected and at least 60 percent of HIV+ people in Asia live in India alone. In Canada until 2009, 69,844 cases tested positive for HIV. The numbers who are HIV+ entering Canada from South Asia may be substantial. At present, however, little is known empirically or even anecdotally about the extent of this risk and its impact on health.

This research attempts to assess the perceptions of South Asians in Canada towards HIV and AIDS, and ascertain the prevention and treatment services that they are aware of, accessing, including community based care and the Canadian public system. At a bigger scale, this research seeks to identify the ways in which immigrants and refugees/refugee claimants who are HIV+ from South Asia are vulnerable to discrimination in Canada because of the following factors, which include but are not limited to: lack of information about HIV/AIDS incidence in the community; inability of the Canadian health system to respond appropriately with the lack of information; the community’s need for introspec