Final Blog

MHST 601 has been a fantastic journey overall. It started with getting insight into developing my professional identity (which I always have been confused about). Then to the discussion about the Canadian health system, applying a multi-level approach to research on selected vulnerable populations in the country. This course has been highly comprehensive and perfectly compatible with my research interest.

As a public health researcher and an immigrant in various countries, including Hong Kong, Canada, the U.S., and India (My family was refugees from Pakistan due to minority oppression in the 1970s). (Alam, P.,2021)

Immigrant and refugee health has been a strong passion from the start of my life. At a very young age, I was exposed to listening to various stories about how some of my family members were being killed just by voicing out for equality on basic needs. How they were neglected necessities such as clean water, food, safety, and health accessibility just because of differences in religious beliefs, something we virtually have no control over when we were born. I am glad to be part of this course where I could openly discuss immigrant and refugee health without worrying about being pulled out of our house and getting shot for voicing it out. First, I would like to thank Dr. Cullum for this opportunity, where we could discuss relevant topics without judgment and receive critical feedback.

This course has solidified my passion and future aspiration as a pioneer and a leader to help immigrants and refugees achieve health equity, especially South Asians, due to my sentiments and enhanced knowledge and awareness of this ethnic group from a very young age. I have researched South Asian health and cardiovascular diseases since my undergraduate degree, and I have co-founded numerous NGOs in various countries to improve health knowledge, awareness, equity, and cultural-competency training amongst healthcare workers to ensure chronic disease prevention and management should be normalized in this ethnic group. Many might not know that South Asians are 2-3 times more likely to suffer and die from cardiovascular diseases than other ethnic groups. South Asians are overrepresented in Canada's morbidity and mortality of CVDs. (Dod, R., Rajendran, 2022). However, this is only my secondary research interest, as my primary focus is to ensure health equity amongst immigrants and refugees in the country, and Canada has been one of the pioneers in the world.

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend almost a decade in Canada to study and work with South Asian immigrants and refugees, unlike many people with the same background and age as me, who were either never born as their families were cleansed or still living in constant fear in small villages in North-western frontier in Pakistan. We were the few lucky ones to have families moved out of the country and constantly immigrating for a better life. For that, I would shout out to my parents and grandparents, who had the courage and a couple of hundred US dollars to move places to places with no guarantee of basic needs.

In this course, I had the opportunity to study more about the Canadian health system. Despite a few flaws in the system, the Canadian health system has given equity to many people like myself to ensure that health is a basic need, unlike our neighbors, where the free market and privatized health system are used to dictate who is worthy of receiving the essential thing in our life, which is fair and equitable health services.

Unit 6 in this course has also deepened my understanding of indigenous health. This is the most vulnerable population, disproportionally affected by clean water, a safe environment, and essential health accessibility, rooted in imperialism and colonialism. I can understand those feelings more than many privileged individuals, as loss of connectivity to land is not merely just a concept or a statement; it is an indescribable feeling that only a few can understand. That is also passed on from generation to generation. (Greenwood, M., 2015). When a country realizes its fault, it is already very late. It took almost 150 years to close down the last residential school in this country (Greenwood, M., 2015). At least we have acknowledged it, unlike our neighbor country.

My favourite part of this course is discussing the future directions in my topic, which is the future of immigrant and refugee health, as it has struck me the most.

We could not reverse these effects, which were done a few centuries ago. But these events are continuously happening under our watch; from Iraq, Syria, and Somalia to Ukraine, imperialism, and resource wars are still happening. No one in this world would want to see their homes getting bombed and leave their home with literally no plans. As future leaders of this country, we must advocate for peace, justice, and health equity for everyone regardless of cultural differences. This course has shown me a clear path, not merely to my professional identity but my professional goal. I am privileged to be part of this class; every single individual was transparent and eager to learn more. Especially Ashley, who has replied almost to every post I have done on the forum, as well as my other classmates who have given comprehensive insights in various discussions.

I apologize to Dr. Cullum and their classmate for my lack of responses over many weeks; however, being a founder of various NGOs and businesses has been incredibly exhausting and challenging to keep in touch with some topics. I am glad to be part of this group with different personalities from different industries. I wish everyone all the best in their future endeavors.

We are the future health leaders of this country; I hope every one of us will achieve whatever we want and sustain this country in safe hands, in perspective of fair, just, and equitable health accessibility to everyone regardless of cultural, religious, gender differences.

In my language, Char di kala is an important phrase that translates as ‘We should remind ourselves that staying positive is the only way to the future.’

I hope every single one of us will Char di Kala, and keep achieving whatever you have aimed for.

Reference

1. Alam, P. (2021, June 4). Religious minorities of Pakistan: An overview. Parvez Alam, "Religious Minorities of Pakistan: An Overview,” The Indian Journal of Politics (Aligarh), Vol. 52, No. 3-4, 2018, pp-291-302. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/49126369/Religious_Minorities_of_Pakistan_An_Overview?auto=citations&from=cover_page

2. Greenwood, M. (2015). Determinants of indigenous peoples' health in Canada: Beyond the social. Canadian Scholars' Press.

3. Dod, R., Rajendran, A., Kathrotia, M. et al. Cardiovascular Disease in South Asian Immigrants: a Review of Dysfunctional HDL as a Potential Marker. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01306-6

4. Holtzer, E., Moore-Dean, A., Srikanthan, A., & Kuluski, K. (2017). Reforming Refugee Healthcare in Canada: Exploring the Use of Policy Tools. Réforme des services de santé pour les réfugiés au Canada : examen de l'utilisation des outils stratégiques. Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante, 12(4), 46–55. https://doi.org/10.12927/hcpol.2017.25099