National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)

National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
Statement
May 7, 2008

NAPWC statement on the CBC Radio's segment on live-in caregivers and eldercare in Canada

On Friday, May 2, CBC Radio's "The Current" aired a segment on the increasing role of Live-In Caregivers in elder care in Canada. The featured interviews with a recruiter and elder care advocate perpetuated racist assumptions about foreign workers, failed to present a realistic picture of working conditions under the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP), and failed to analyze the root causes of Canada's elder care crisis.

Through the LCP and other similar schemes, Canada imports foreign workers to maintain a pool of cheap labour to perform work under conditions that no Canadian would accept. As Andrea Texeira stated, "not a lot of people want to be changing diapers or providing home-based support for the price of a foreign caregiver." Workers under the LCP are required to live in their employers' homes, are tied to an employer-specific work permit, and have only temporary immigration status. The requirements of the LCP violate workers' dignity and make them vulnerable to unpaid overtime, isolation, abuse and deportation.

As acknowledged by both interviewees, many caregivers are highly skilled and educated in medically-related fields. Because their education and credentials are not recognized in Canada, they experience deskilling, despite being expected to perform medically-related tasks in the home. Deskilling traps them in low-paying jobs even after they have completed the program and applied for permanent residency.

The Live-In Caregiver Program allows the Canadian government to neglect providing essential funding and infrastructure for child care and elder care. For over twenty years, Filipino women have been coming to Canada to provide child care for middle and upper-class Canadian families. This has relieved pressure on the federal government to provide a national daycare program that would benefit all Canadians, not just those who can afford to hire a Live-In Caregiver. Similarly, the increasing reliance on Live-In Caregivers for elder care is a manifestation of the growing privatization of health care. For an ageing population, it is imperative that elder care be made accessible to all. The government must invest in health care to meet the needs of all Canadians and to provide acceptable working conditions for health care and child care workers.

Filipino women across Canada have been struggling against their intensifying exploitation and oppression as women of colour and as workers. Over 100,000 women from the Philippines have entered Canada under the Live-In Caregiver Program since the 1980s. Today, our women, their children and the Filipino community at large face the harsh impacts of the program, including the criminalization and arbitrary deportations of Live-In Caregivers, rape, deskilling, family separation, forced prostitution, and the chronic underdevelopment of the Filipino community.

We, as the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), call on the Canadian government to scrap the Live-In Caregiver Program! We call on the Canadian Government to implement a national child care! We call on the Canadian government to provide adequate funding for health care to allow elders and health care workers to live with dignity!

Statement by:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
- Philippine Women Centre of BC, 604-215-1103, pwc@kalayaancentre.net
- Philippine Women Centre of Manitoba
- Philippine Women Centre of Ontario, 416-519-2553, pwcontario@yahoo.ca
- Philippine Women Centre of Quebec, 514-678-3901, pwcofquebec@gmail.om

Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) Member of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) Telephone: 416-878-8772