Right to health of newcomers to Canada: reflections in the light of a comparison with Italy

The aim of the article consists in analysing and describing, from a critical point of view, the safeguard level of the right to health granted by the Canadian health care system to newcomers to Canada. To this end, by Canadian health care system is meant the whole of the services supplied or sustained by any level of government (Federal, Provincial or Territorial). The term newcomers refers to permanent and temporary residents, refugee claimants and other protected persons. People without legal status are also taken into consideration. In particular, the paper gives an overview of the different categories of foreigners and of their corresponding legal entitlements to health services. The research approach is comparative: the article compares briefly the Canadian system of migrant health protection with the safeguard of the right to health of foreigners granted by the Italian National Health Care System. Finally, the paper investigates some of the reasons which, from an Italian perspective, could be at the basis of the distinctions between the two health systems in facing the issue of migrant health: the different incidence of international law on migrant health and, as for Italy, the impact of EU law; the relevance of the absence of a freestanding right to health in the Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms, whereas the Italian Constitution has a specific article dedicated to this right; the prevalence of formal equality over substantive equality in the Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms, whereas the Italian Constitution expressly enshrines the principle of substantive equality.