Max Rady College of Medicine

Term: Migrant / Migration

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Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2022-12-08

Definition:

concept/Social Determinants of Health-SDOH-Digital Library-Image.jpg A migrant is a person who undergoes a migration process, defined as establishing a permanent or temporary residence in a new jurisdiction (e.g., province, country). Changes of residence within the province are usually referred to as residential mobility, not migration. Migrants can be interprovincial migrants (migration between provinces or states within the same country) or international immigrants (migration between countries).

Migrants are referred to as immigrants when the speakers position themselves in the place where the migrants are settling (place of destination) and as emigrants when the point of reference is the place of origin. Emigrants are also referred to as outmigrants, remigrants (if they are migrants who migrate to a new destination) or return migrants (if they are migrants who come back to the place they migrated from).

The migration can be temporary or permanent. International temporary migrants are those who have a time-limited work or study visa and are expected to return to their places of origin upon expiration of the visa. Permanent residents (also known as Landed Immigrants) are those who have been granted a Canadian permanent residency by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Related concepts 

Related terms 

Term used in 

  • Ewesesan R, Chartier MJ, Nickel NC, Wall-Wieler E, Urquia ML. Psychosocial and behavioral health indicators among immigrant and non-immigrant recent mothers. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2022;22(1):612. [Abstract] (View)
  • Urquia M, Walld R, Prior H, Detillieux G, Eze N, Koseva I. The Diversity of Immigrants to Manitoba, Migration Dynamics and Basic Healthcare Service Use. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2020. [Report] [Summary] [Additional Materials] (View)
  • Urquia ML, Walld R, Wanigaratne S, Eze ND, Azimaee M, McDonald JT, Guttmann A. Linking national immigration data to provincial repositories: The case of Canada. Int J Popul Data Sci 2021;6(1):1412. [Abstract] (View)


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Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine,
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences,
Room 408-727 McDermot Ave.
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P5 Canada

204-789-3819