[Public Lecture] David Wright, "Medicare and Migration -- The Complicated History of Foreign-Trained Doctors and Nurses in Canada"
Journalists and policy experts have recently asserted that Canadian Medicare is in an 鈥渦nprecedented鈥� crisis, one that can only be resolved by the licensing of thousands of foreign-trained health care practitioners. Indeed, the Conservative Party of Canada, which polls suggest is increasingly likely to form the next federal government, has recently unveiled a 鈥淏lue Seal鈥� proposal to fast-track the licensing of foreign-trained doctors and nurses. The goal is to address, or even to eliminate, the nearly six million Canadians who report not having a primary care practitioner. Although this initiative has been framed as a necessary measure to alleviate a recent phenomenon, this talk will argue exactly the opposite: that Medicare in Canada was conceived and sustained over the last 50 years by the backfilling of underserviced areas and specialties through the licensing of foreign-trained (and largely foreign-born) practitioners. This presentation examines the history of Medicare, demonstrating how the keystone of Canadian welfare state nationalism was built and sustained by health care practitioners who 鈥渃ame from away鈥�.