Counselling Muslim Immigrant Clients in Canada

Counselling Muslim Immigrant Clients in Canada
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Counselling Muslim Immigrant Clients in Canada
Religious beliefs remain critical to the adoption of various medical procedures globally thereby making it necessary for professionals to delve deep into cultures to address some conditions. Most people, in contemporary society, attach aspects of their health to their cultural aspects such as religion. With such attachments come variations in perceptions in terms of diagnoses, treatment, or reactions to illnesses and death. However, the demographic trends of the world are changing and cultures are growing increasingly assimilated. With such growth, people should understand the health decisions of others and offer as much help as deemed necessary. Notably, multiculturalism is still a challenge that professionals in healthcare have not adopted completely. Immigration is one of the prospects fueling multiculturalism in contemporary healthcare. Countries that welcome more immigrants consistently are indulged in the race to steer their healthcare systems into matching the needs of all their citizens. Canada is among the countries that have a high adoption rate for immigrants, some of whom are Muslims with highly diversified cultural perceptions in health aspects such as mental diseases. This paper explores the increasing cultural diversity in present-day Canada and assesses counseling Muslim immigrants in that country that keeps attracting more people from diverse cultural backgrounds. The analysis is vital in addressing mental health issues within the cultural space among Muslims in a country that traditionally cherished only western counseling practices.
Muslim Immigrants in Canada
Canada is among the countries that have maintained a liberal position in addressing immigrant issues. Muslim immigrants are those individuals who culturally believe in the teachings of Islam and are living in Canada even though they were not born in Canada or were born to parents who were born in other countries (Afaf, 2021). Both children of Muslim immigrants and immigrants showcase similar experiences while living in Canada. Their experiences, however, are different from those of second or third-generation immigrants. Muslims currently constitute 3.7% of the Canadian population, according to the latest data. That is a considerable improvement from the 2011 data indicating that Muslims constituted 3.2% of the population at the time (Afaf, 2021). The current instability in part of the Muslim world has triggered more challenges in immigration. It is projected that the Muslim population in Canada should surpass the 5% mark of the whole population. Still, there are locations in Canada with a higher population of Muslims than others. For instance, 6% of the population in Greater Montreal is Muslim while 7.7% of the Greater Toronto Area population consists of Muslims. The other regions in Canada with a higher population of Muslims include British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec (Farhad, 2019). For healthcare professionals who live in areas with higher Muslim populations, it grows imperative that they understand the cultures.
As noted, there are significant differences in terms of experiences among different g...