Nursing the Caregiver

Nursing the Caregiver

By Joyne Lavides

Writer’s Note: Names have been changed in order to maintain the confidentiality and security of the four caregivers interviewed in this article.

The significant influx of Filipino nurses migrating to Canada as live-in caregivers echoes an alarming phenomenon. Philippine statistics recorded that in the first six months of 2007, more than 1300 nurses applied under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) instead of applying as nurses to obtain a landed immigrant status. The impact is unprecedented. Nurses are deskilled and caregivers are encouraged.

Times have changed. Thirty years ago, Filipino nurses came to Canada and worked directly as nurses. Their education, training and experience were fully recognized as they capably filled shortages in Canadian hospitals. Today, Canada Immigration grants zero occupational points to foreign-trained nurses applying as independent immigrants. LCP is the only option available.

Teresita Jose was a registered nurse in the Philippines working at a hospital in Iloilo city when she was implored by relatives in Canada to take care of her ailing uncle. The processing of Teresita’s LCP application was faster than the regular immigration process, easing Teresita’s entry into the Canadian care giving industry.

In 2007, a year later into the program, Teresita’s uncle passed on. Under the LCP program, she needs 24 months working as a caregiver before she can apply as a landed immigrant. She was able to find a similar job in downtown Toronto, this time binding her for another two years to take care of an ALS patient.

Teresita’s desire to practice her nursing profession is put on hold by the new Canadian Nurses Association regulations which require internationally trained nurses to upgrade their skills in a Canadian school. Knowing that Canadian physicians recognize her knowledge and skills at work, Teresita keeps her hopes alive, constantly reinforcing her goal to work as a nurse again.

Blesilda Ella belongs to an earlier batch of Filipino registered nurses who took advantage of the point system 26 years ago. Getting the landed immigrant status as a nurse, she came from the Middle East and settled in Hamilton. The first four years were quite challenging for Blesilda to integrate into the Canadian health system. She needed to finish her nursing certificate at Mohawk College in order to work as a nurse at a local hospital. In between her schooling, she worked as a health care aide. It’s been 18 years and to this day, she has managed to keep her nursing job at the same hospital. This year, Blesilda plans to go to McMaster School of Nursing to upgrade her knowledge and skills.

The significant number of Filipino nurses working as caregivers in Canada replicates the inevitable migration of highly skilled professional Filipinos in recent years. Doctors, engineers, accountants, journalists, and managers join the daily exodus of migrant Filipinos heading to work elsewhere around the world. Members of the academe would aptly put it as the brain drain outcome of globalization in third world countries.

Myra Jacinto holds a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management but opted to work as a nanny in Hong Kong before she came to Canada under the LCP. After paying hefty fees to a Canadian agency, she was placed in a Burlington home where she worked and resided with her employer. Under the program, she has to pay her employer board and lodging fees, taken from her $1500 a month salary, leaving her a net pay of only $850 a month.

Determined to stay afloat, Myra completed her two-year contract in September 2007, allowing her to apply for a landed immigrant status and petitioning her family whom she has not seen in five years. Myra currently works as a data entry operator in a Burlington office. She looks forward later this year when her family would join her in Hamilton.

Anita Moreno’s story is a tragic tale that paints a gloomy picture of women migrant workers in Canada. Just six months into the LCP, she was subjected by her employer to physical abuse and horrible living conditions, forcing her to escape. Fearing for her life, she did not report the incident to the authorities. She worked odd jobs in order to send monies to her children in the Philippines. Since the time that her farmer husband had disappeared and believed to be dead while attending a farmers rally, she had been the sole breadwinner.

Last year, Anita was looking for a bigger apartment because her children were finally coming to Canada. She bought winter clothes and school supplies for them in anticipation of their arrival. A month before the children were expected to arrive, an overseas call from Anita’s aunt crumbled her dreams. Her children and mother were among the victims who died during the mudslide. Anita suffered a heart attack, paralyzing her whole body.

Unable to work, Anita scraped on her small savings and depended on her neighbour’s generosity to donate food and toiletries. Her status as a migrant worker limits her opportunity to avail of basic needs, including health insurance. Facing uncertainty, Anita hopes to regain her health and redirect her life.

The plight of Anita, Teresita, Blesilda and Myra became an outcry for other caregivers to form a group aimed at establishing a Migrant Workers Family Resource Centre in Hamilton. With 200 members to date and still growing, their goal is to put up a centre where it will provide support, advocacy and information to its members, actively assisting in the smooth integration of migrant workers and their families into the community and the workplace.

In order to support these women, Kultura Life & Art Inc., in collaboration with Womenpower International and The Immigrant Journal, will host TIARA FESTIVAL, a fundraising event dedicated to celebrate the power of women, highlighting their struggles and successes through fashion and art. TIARA FESTIVAL will be held on Thursday, May 8, 2008 from 11 am to 8 pm at LIUNA Station’s Continental Express Ballroom, 360 James Street North, Hamilton, Ontario. Proceeds of this event will be used to advocate women, art and culture issues. To join the festival, email to tiarainc@gmail.com or visit www.womenpower.ca

Kultura Life & Art Inc. is a registered non-profit organization which promotes and upholds diversity through art, culture, and heritage.

Womenpower International is a diverse group of women entrepreneurs, professionals and home makers who utilize their skills and knowledge to actively advocate the rights of women. The Immigrant Journal is an alternative on-line publication composed of artists and journalists who raise awareness about domestic and global issues that impact the lives of the marginalized.

The upsurge of demand for caregivers in Canada will undeniably continue to entice Filipino nurses and highly skilled professionals in the Philippines. In a poverty-stricken country like the Philippines where the usual salary of a nurse is 17 times lower than that of a caregiver, the recruitment will surely boom, further deskilling professionals and advancing the caregivers. Sadly, as the Philippine government and Canadian immigration continue to obscure its ill effects, LCP will thrive. Many capable Filipino nurses will continue to diminish their mental and physical capacity to serve as nurses amidst an ailing Canadian health system in lieu of care giving jobs at retirement homes and luxurious residential families. ▪

Joyne Lavides is a broadcast and print journalist who writes for H Magazine, The Voice in Diaspora and Hamilton Spectator. She is one of the founding members of Womenpower International. Her multi-media works have been commissioned locally and internationally for print, radio and television commercials. info@womenpower.ca