Changes to live-in caregiver program next?

Leahlara Capio has been raising children for the last eight years, but they aren't her own.

She is working as a nanny in St. Albert.

Capio is the sole provider for her own children, five boys aged 13 to 22, who are being raised by their grandparents back home in the Philippines.

Capio came to Canada in 2012 under the live-in caregiver program, which allows Canadian families to hire a foreign live-in caregiver, or nanny, when Canadian citizens or permanent residents cannot fill the position.

“I am so fortunate to be here. Here we have freedom,” says Capio, who prior to coming to St. Albert lived and worked as a nanny for six years in Saudi Arabia.

Following the recent reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the live-in caregiver program has also been earmarked for change.

In July, the Toronto Star reported that Employment Minister Jason Kenney criticized the program as being “out of control” having “mutated” into a program to reunite families as nannies come to work for their relatives in Canada.

He cited that “all” of 70 nannies he met with at a seminar in Manila in 2008 were going to Canada to work for their relatives.

Last month, the National Post reported that The Canadian Border Services Agency has probed 19 cases of “runaway nannies” and abuse of the live-in caregiver program since January.

The immigration investigation unit is responding to allegations of fraud, misrepresentation and abuse of the program, including complaints that domestic care workers come to Canada to work for a family but soon leave for a job elsewhere before the terms of their employment have been met.

Under the program, caregivers must work 24 months of authorized full-time employment or the equivalent number of hours over 22 months, providing care for children under 18 years of age, elderly persons 65 years of age or older or persons with disabilities.

When those specifications are met, workers and their dependents can then apply for permanent residency.

Claims unfounded

Kenney's criticisms of the live-in caregiver program are baseless, says Ethel Tungohan, co-investigator of the Gabriela Transitions Experiences Survey (GATES), a national survey of the experiences of 631 Filipina women who are current or former live-in caregivers.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded the survey, which consulted caregivers in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal between December 2012 and December 2013.

It found that the vast majority of caregivers arrive in Canada via employment agencies. The next largest method of recruitment was by direct hire by employers. Only one in 10 caregivers in the last five years were recruited by family members.

“I don't know on what basis Minister Kenney made his claims,” says Tungohan, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Alberta.

“I strongly feel that scapegoating Filipino families is the wrong thing to do, which is what his statements say. I think these statements are irresponsible,” she adds, urging Kenney to further clarify where he is getting his information.

She notes one of the terms of program, which requires caregivers to live in the home, can be a source of abuse by employers.

Non-payment of overtime wages, non-payment of wages for actual hours worked and refusal to recognize the terms of the program – mandating live-in caregivers to only do care work and light housekeeping – are just some examples of abuse, says Tungohan.

“A lot of caregivers are asked to do work over and beyond the terms of their contract and this goes back to the live-in requirement, they are living and working with their bosses,” she says.

Even if workers are abused, many won't say anything out of fear they will be sent home. But with the help of friends – that quickly become your surrogate family while in Canada – some workers, like Capio, do.

When the mother of five first arrived in Alberta, she worked as a live-in caregiver in Vilna, but she ended up performing the duties of a farm hand.

“I couldn't (speak) out my right,” admits Capio. Eventually with the support of her friends – caregivers and temporary foreign workers themselves – she quit her job and found another family to work for.

Coming and staying

While waiting for their permanent residency applications to be processed, workers under the live-in caregiver program receive an open work permit allowing them to find jobs outside of care work.

Gracielle Dacanay is in that predicament. The 28-year-old former nurse from the Philippines is currently working as a nanny but also looking for a part-time job at a medical clinic, hoping to get back into the health care sector.

Finding employment outside of caregiving is recognized in the GATES analysis as an issue facing workers, making their transition from ‘migrant' to ‘citizen' more difficult.

The study states that prohibiting caregivers from taking part-time courses longer than six months while working increases de-skilling; 68 per cent of the women surveyed remain as caregivers three to five years after leaving the program. Many lack occupational mobility despite higher levels of education.

Another challenge is integration and settlement for caregivers and their families after prolonged periods of family separation.

Much like Capio, many workers plan to make Canada their permanent home. One day she would like to be reunited with her five children permanently, not just when she can go back to the Philippines for vacation.

“I'm so lonely every time I think about them, but it makes me more determined,” she says. “What I am doing now is for their future. It's my pride to give them a good future.”

Capio is trying to make the best of her time here.

“I have dreams, I have plans, as do my friends. While we are here, we don't want to just depend on the government. We know we are only temporary here and we are giving our best,” she says.

“Coming to Canada is like digging for gold in the Philippines … and finding it.”