“Part of Being Canadian Is Having Access to Healthcare”: Framing the Boundaries of Healthcare Deservingness for Non-Citizens through the Interim Federal Health Benefits Program

Abstract

Background In June 2012, the Canadian government cut eligibility to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) for some refugees and refugee claimants. Analysis Drawing from news sources, this article examines the ways different actors—politicians and advocates—framed deservingness and undeservingness to support or contest the IFHP cuts. Deservingness refers to the ways value or worth is allocated to differently situated individuals based on their social location. Conclusions and implications The authors explore how deservingness is understood through a lens of citizenship, focusing on immigration status, understandings of “illegality” and criminalization of non-citizens, and varying versions of “Canadian values.” They argue that different interlocutors participated in the drawing and redrawing of boundaries of social and moral worth related to both presence in and access to social goods in Canada.