ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the problem of institutional void(s) in relation to securing adequate access to health and health care for immigrants in North America. Within the post–North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) context, North America has increasingly relied on temporary migrant and immigrant labor from the global South (particularly Mexico) as the United States and Canada have expanded temporary labor programs to meet the need for agricultural and low-skilled workers. Arguably, because migrants and immigrants are not citizens, the nation-state is not responsible for meeting their legal, health and human service or advocacy needs. Yet in an increasingly globalized world, South-to-North labor mobility and immigration and migration patterns mean that a significant number of individuals from the global South (Africa, Latin America, most of Asia) live outside their home nation. Who (and what institutions) is responsible for ensuring the labor, health and human rights of these global workers?
