| Summary: | Immigrant workers, especially recent immigrants, are often defined as a population that is more vulnerable to the risk of occupational injuries and prolonged absence from work. Their vulnerability is due to the fact that they often face language and cultural barriers which inform their interactions with compensation board representatives, government officials, resource people, etc., they are less familiar with the health and OHS systems, and they are more likely to work in sectors with higher risks of occupational injuries. Work rehabilitation research in the last twenty-five years has identified many determinants of prolonged absence from work. It is now acknowledged that pain representation and treatment expectations can influence treatment outcome in workers who are in a rehabilitation program. The fear of movement and the anticipation of pain and its negative consequences on personal life have also been identified. This article proposes a theoretical analysis of the issues of work rehabilitation in an intercultural context. Our reflection is based among other things on a critical review of the literature regarding the influence of ethnocultural characteristics on the rehabilitation process. This review was published by the IRSST (Côté, 2012) and aimed to identify the main factors that influence this process. The article we propose focuses more specifically on the issue of therapist-patient communication, which seems to be central to the therapeutic process and is expressed in intercultural contexts.
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