Overseas Filipinos in Canada raise concerns over temporary worker programs to Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration

Overseas Filipinos in Canada raise concerns over temporary worker programs to Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration Canada

For immediate release: April 10, 2008

VANCOUVER, B.C. – On March 31, 2008 members of the Philippine Women Centre of BC (PWC- BC) and Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA) appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. They called for the scrapping of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) due to long-standing and well-documented abuse of Filipino women under the program. Based on the experience of the Filipino community in Canada, they also denounced the Canadian government's expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

"We are deeply concerned about the increasing numbers of temporary workers being recruited to Canada without a full and critical examination of the negative impacts of existing temporary workers programs like the LCP," stated Denise Valdecantos, Board Member of the PWC of BC. "We see the LCP as a form of modern-day slavery with many women under the program suffering all kinds of abuses and violations of their human rights. We fear more violations of the rights of our community members will come with the expansion of the TFWP," said Valdecantos.

Since the early 1980s, nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada under the LCP and its predecessor program, the Foreign Domestic Movement (FDM). Over 90% of those entering Canada under the LCP are from the Philippines.

The BC government recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine government in order to recruit 30,000 temporary workers yearly to meet so-called "labour shortages."

The groups noted that national, progressive Filipino organizations, such as the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (of which PWC-BC is a founding member), UKPC/FCYA Canada (of which the Vancouver chapter is a founding member) and SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers) have been actively calling for the program's scrapping given its anti-woman and racist character.

Mildred German, a member of FCYA/UKPC, shared the findings of a recent UBC study which documented Filipino youth traumatized as a result of family separation. German said the LCP's regulations which restrict women from bringing their families to Canada until they become landed immigrants results in an average of five years of family separation. She said Filipino youth, many of whom are the children of former live-in caregivers, have the second-highest drop out rate from Vancouver high schools.

Drawing on their rich community-based organizing experience of more than 15 years, the Filipino community made key recommendations to the Standing Committee. These included recommendations to confront the Canadian government's efforts to heighten its exploitation of migrant workers through the expansion of the TFWP by calling on the government to allow the migrants permanent residency status upon arrival; allow migrants to come to Canada with their families; allow these migrants to practice their profession in Canada; and to protect the rights and welfare of these workers and scrap the Live-In Caregiver Program.

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