Mandatory HIV Screening Policy & Everyday Life: A Look Inside the Canadian Immigration Medical Examination

Abstract

Findings that detail the social organization of day-to-day practices associated with the Canadian government policy of mandatory HIV testing of permanent residence applicants to Canada are reproted. Institutional ethnography was used to investigate interactions between HIV-positive applicants and immigration physicians during the immigration medical examination. A composite narrative recounts details of a woman applicant's discovery through immigration testing that she was living with HIV. Mandatory HIV testing gives rise to serious difficulties for applicants to Canada living with HIV. Applicant, physician and federal state employee work practices associated with mandatory HIV testing are analysed. These practices contribute to the ideological work of the Canadian state, where interest bounds up in the examination serve the state and not the applicant. Findings should be useful for Canadian immigration policy makers who wish to develop constructive and functionnal strategies to address issues that matter in people's lives