Respect and Dignity for Caregivers

Respect and Dignity for Caregivers

By Pura Velasco

(Speech delivered at the Almusalan Forum of Philippine Press Club Ontario at Casa Manila, Feb. 23, 2008)

The Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) is a government program that brings to Canada mainly women from poor countries to work as live-in caregivers to care for the young, the elderly, and the people with disability.

It is the latest version in Canada’s continuing program of recruiting live-in caregivers or domestic workers since 100 years ago. There had been various schemes that changed over time such as the recruitment of the European domestic workers and the Caribbean Scheme which recruited domestic workers from the Caribbean islands.

Prior to 1940, all domestic workers were given landed status upon arrival in Canada in exchange for one year work in domestic field. In 1960, the Temporary Employment Act (TEA) was implemented which was replaced by the FDM in 1981. In 1992, FDM was replaced by LCP in response to the growing demand for childcare and long term care services in Canada.

The LCP has 3 pillars:

1. The mandatory live-in requirement which makes it illegal for a live-in caregiver to live outside the home or his/her employer during the course of the contract.

2. The temporary immigration status for 24 months within 39 month period making them vulnerable to immediate deportation upon non-completion within this period.

3. The employer-specific work permit which ties them down to a single employer, making them vulnerable at any time to abuse and arbitrary demands by their employer.

Some of the economic, social and cultural impacts of being a live-in caregiver on a temporary work status are :

1. Unpaid wages and overtime pay, unsafe working conditions, sexual harassment, confinement.

2.The workers lose their skills and their professional knowledge over time as they continue to work as caregivers.

3. Downward economic mobility as they find difficulty in moving up to other good paying jobs outside the LCP.

4. Many caregivers continue to be stuck in low-paying jobs having been de-skilled.

5. Many suffer immediate deportation even for minor non-compliance such as completion of the 24/39 month-rule

6. The long separation from families due to economic difficulty and marginalization cause alienation between children and parents and other members of the family.

7. The program denies caregivers the chance to actively participate in civic and community affairs that makes for good citizenship.

Given the impact of the LCP on the lives of the workers, the lobbying and advocacy that was started by domestic workers in the past continues. We have had extensive lobbying efforts at local, national and international levels. We have been pointing out that the program is fatally flawed as it violates the human rights of the caregivers thereby creating the context for systemic abuse and vulnerability of these workers and further stalls their development and increases inequality including economic segregation.

On a personal level, working as a domestic worker under the FDM in the 90s was like being in prison. All my employers treated me as if they owned me.

Being on temporary work permit, tied to a specific employer for 24 months the occurrence of unpaid long working hours, sexual harassment, and abuse were routine.

We were required to get release a letter from our previous employer as a condition for issuing another work permit. We were required to attend two critical assessment interviews with immigration officers who would look at our savings, volunteer work, educational upgrading, language ability and other settlement aspects that should show that we would not become a burden to Canada.

We fought vigorously for the abolition of the requirements that I mentioned because so many were not able to pass the mandatory immigration interviews. Many went home because they or their family members were deemed medically or criminally inadmissible.

And yet the basic rights of the workers to minimum employment standards – WSIB, EI – have continuously been ignored and neglected by both the provincial and the federal governments.

The murder of Jocelyn Dulnuan last year, in her workplace, highlighted the plight of our live-in caregivers who are abused and exploited financially, mentally and physically by employers, governments, employment agencies and other entities that are involved in the trading of domestic work.

As you know, since 1981, there have not been fundamental changes to the Foreign Domestic Workers Movement (FDM) or the Live-in Caregivers Program (LCP) that will improve the working conditions and the lives of the caregivers.

Our caregivers are providing an essential and very important service in promoting the well-being and the quality of life of Canadians. As the aging Canadian population increases, there will be a corresponding increase in the demand for care-giving services in the homes and in the community. The lack of affordable universal childcare will add to the care deficit that Canadian families have to worry about, not only now but in the future. This is an industry that our people know how to deliver professionally and with caring attitude. We have to take this industry seriously. Our caregivers are at the centre of this industry. Let us take the high road of campaigning for respect, dignity, economic justice and employment rights for our workers as the future of our families and our community depends on it. Care-giving is our major resource, our product, our capital – we should value it and fight for it.
Let us take some moments to look at the facts about our community that tell us how important it is for us to assert the changes in the LCP that we would like to propose as the impact of our initiative will impact our community seven generations down the road.

1. The Philippines is the 3rd largest source of migrants in Canada.

2. We are now about 500,000 Filipinos who have settled in Canada since the 1960s

3. 65% of our people are women

4. According to the 2005 LCP Roundtable Report, 95.6% of LCP participants are of Filipino origin

5. According to the Statistical Profiles and Forecasts of the FDM in 1991 by Immigration Canada, our peoples’ participation in the domestic program had a dramatic increase-by four times. In 1985, 1,536 of our women were entrants to the FDM. In 1990, 6, 400 of our women came under the FDM.

6. We are the second top source country of Temporary Foreign Workers according to Immigration Canada’s statistics of 2006 (the U.S. is first with 24,830, Philippines with 21, 623, Mexico with 15, 219) CIC Facts and Figures 2006.

7. If you look at the statistics of the number of LCP participants for 2006: 7,915 participants, we could deduce that our participation in the LCP is really 95.6% which was confirmed by Immigration Canada at the 2005 LCP Roundtable.

These facts and figures are not surprising:

a. Most Filipinos have college education and are “culturally and linguistically prepared” to work and settle in Canada, according to the research done by Dr. Philip Kelly of York University and have been confirmed by the research done by CASJ.

b. Unfortunately due to the systemic racism and discrimination that exist in Canadian society, our peoples’ education, training and work experience are not recognized. As result of this situation…..
c. We have been segregated to work in low paying, flexible service jobs…

d. Our LCP participants who are highly educated have been de-skilled or are being de-skilled because of the prison-like requirements of the LCP. Caregivers who are on a temporary status are not allowed to enroll in meaningful educational upgrading courses.

e. Because of the live-in requirement, the 24/39 month-rule tied to a specific employment, caregivers’ access to other job opportunities are limited.

I know that in the 70’s, during the campaign for the right of domestic workers to apply for landed status in Canada, some of you had chronicled the campaign in your newspapers. I think the “Good enough to work, good enough to stay” campaign was an historical initiative that our community should honor, remember and emulate.

Let us continue the fight for changes in the Live-in Caregiver Program.