Disrupting Migrant Work

Sarom Rho is a migrant and a community organizer who unites with other migrant workers to mobilize for full and permanent immigration status for all in Canada. Listen to this episode to learn from Sarom about the ways in which immigration status, employment and health are linked, and to consider why a global approach to local public health practice matters with public health professor and researcher Dr. Erica Di Ruggiero. (00:00) Introduction(02:23) Interview with Sarom Rho (36:37) Interview with Erica Di Ruggiero Episode Guests: Sarom Rho is an organizer with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, a workers' rights organization with a membership of migrants in farm work, care work and low-waged work, which includes current and former international students, refugees and undocumented people. MWAC serves as the Secretariat of the Migrant Rights Network. Reflective guest Dr. Erica Di Ruggiero is an Associate Professor of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health whose research focuses on evaluating the health, gender, and equity impacts of policies on marginalized groups such as precarious workers. She explores how different types of evidence shape global policy agendas and influence global governance in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.Learn more: Report: Behind Closed Doors – Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19 (MWAC, 2020) Report: Unheeded Warnings – COVID-19 & Migrant Workers in Canada (MWAC, 2020)Immigration Status as the Foundational Determinant of Health for People Without Status in Canada: A Scoping Review (Gagnon et al., 2021)Determining Health: Decent work issue brief (NCCDH, 2022)Episode Credits: This episode is produced by Rebecca Cheff, Carolina Jimenez, and our host Bernice Yanful (NCCDH). Special thanks to our episode guests Sarom Rho and Erica Di Ruggiero. Coordination of communications, webpage development and dissemination are led by Caralyn Vossen (NCCDH). Thanks to Claire Betker and the rest of the NCCDH team for their support. Technical production and original music by Chris Perry. Artwork by comet art + design.Mind the Disruption is a podcast by the NCCDH. Visit https://nccdh.ca/learn/podcast/ to learn more about the podcast and our work.The NCCDH is hosted by St. Francis Xavier University. This podcast is made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada through funding for the NCCDH. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.Established in 2005, the NCCDH is one of the six National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) for Public Health that work together to promote the use of scientific research and other knowledge to strengthen public health practices, programs and policies in Canada. For more information, visit the NCCPH website.