Volpe’s office refuses to receive petition vs deportation of live-in caregivers

Volpe’s office refuses to receive petition vs deportation of live-in caregivers

By SIKLAB, Ontario

TORONTO–The office of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe refused to receive a petition signed by some 1,000 people from across Canada demanding a stop to the unjust deportation of Filipino live-in caregivers.

Chanting, “Migrants’ rights are human rights! Stop the deportation of Filipino live-in caregivers!” some 40 activists and sympathizers led by Siklab-Ontario (National Alliance of Filipino Migrant Workers in Canada; siklab is Filipino word for flare) brought the petitions as they held a protest action in front of Volpe’s campaign headquarters on Avenue road last January 13.

The protest was part of the National Day of Protest against the unjust deportation of Filipino live-in caregivers. Similar mass actions were done in Montreal and Vancouver.

With instructions from the minister’s headquarters, police officers earlier tried to dissuade organizers from holding the protest, saying the minister was not in the office and that “only volunteers are there and they cannot take anything you want delivered to the minister.” The protesters however stood their ground and proceeded with the militant but peaceful mass action.

Siklab-Ontario was joined by members of the Philippine Women Centre, the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC-Toronto), the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) and friends from the Justice for Jeffrey (J4J) Coalition, Intercede, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), the People’s Front and No One is Illegal campaign.

Plight of Filipino live-in caregivers

Reading from her organization’s statement, Siklab Vice Chairperson Yolyn Valenzuela said, “In the last six years alone, 95 percent who came under the live-in caregiver program (LCP) were Filipino women thus highlighting the need by Canada for cheap labor and the ‘forced’ migration of Filipino women. We are hailed as ‘modern-day heroes,’ but in fact, we are ‘modern-day slaves.’ The government does not take into account the oppressive working and living conditions of live-in caregivers. Instead, it penalizes live-in caregivers with its inhumane implementation of an exploitative and racist policy. Canada must be held accountable to the thousands of live-in caregivers who toil under the LCP.”

Live-in caregivers are subject to arbitrary and unjust deportation for failure to complete the requirements of the LCP. “In the majority of cases, the deportations are due to the live-in caregiver’s inability to complete the required 24 months of live-in work within three years of entering Canada,” says Cynthia Palmaria of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario. “Citizenship and Immigration Canada also tricks the caregivers through the expansion of its temporary worker program. Some live-in caregivers facing deportation were given an extension of their working visas, not under the LCP but under the temporary worker program, thus depriving them of the chance to apply for permanent residency.”

Now running for reelection, CIC Minister Volpe last year promised to review the LCP in order to address the urgent issues arising from it. To date, Siklab claimed, there has been no review, but only lip service made by an administration “adamantly refusing to take responsibility for its policies.”
LCP affects children, too

“But the impact of the LCP does not fall on the women alone. It also affects their children.” Grace Montesclaros of the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada (UKPC or Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-Toronto chapter) stressed, “If the live-in caregivers have children who are born in Canada, these children – who are Canadian citizens – face permanent separation from their mothers.” Children whose mothers have lost their immigration status in Canada