Foreign Practices: Immigrant Doctors and the History of Canadian Medicare. Sasha Mullally and David Wright

Abstract

In Foreign Practices: Immigrant Doctors and the History of Canadian Medicare, Canadian historians of health Sasha Mullally and David Wright examine the interconnected history of Canadian healthcare and immigration. In documenting the relationship between the healthcare system and foreign-born and trained medical practitioners, Mullally and Wright demonstrate the profound impact that these physicians had on the success of Medicare and, in turn, on the shaping of Canadian identity in the mid-twentieth century. This text fills a significant gap in the historiography; the authors note that the social history perspective has long been lacking and the history of this multifaceted relationship has been dominated instead by policy histories, resulting in the absence of health care providers’ voices. This is remedied in Foreign Practices through both a micro and macro analysis, as chapter by chapter the authors first narrow the lens using existing and newly collected oral histories, published memoirs, and obituaries, and then broaden it using institutionally created sources such as published journals and the records of government offices. Through this methodology, the authors not only examine the relationship between Canadian institutions and foreign-trained physicians but also contribute to a growing pool of transnational histories studying the ways immigration policies were shaped across the global north and how immigrant physicians have in turn shaped the healthcare systems in their new home countries. While approaching this topic from the national and global perspectives, the authors skillfully negotiate the nuances that have shaped regional identity as they explore the motivations of immigrant physicians to settle or migrate within Canada after their arrival.