Foreign caregivers seek fair residency policy
B.C.’s foreign caregivers have called on the Trudeau government to adopt a fair and compassionate permanent-residency policy that recognizes the sector’s valuable contribution to Canada.
“The time is up for using temporary solutions for this important and permanent need for Canadian society,” Lorina Serafico of the Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights said Monday. “We call on the government to come up with a permanent solution — landed status for caregivers upon arrival in Canada. If we’re good enough to work, we’re good enough to come in as permanent residents.”
Caregivers are mostly women from the Philippines who come to Canada to take care of children, the elderly and others in medical need.
They’re concerned about an update to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website that reveals caregivers will not be eligible for permanent residency if they haven’t completed 24 months of caregiver work by Nov. 29, 2019.
Natalie Drolet, staff lawyer and executive director of the West Coast Domestic Workers Association, told a news conference at the B.C. Federation of Labour office in Vancouver that Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has indicated that the policy is under review and promised “Canada would always have a pathway” to permanent residency for caregivers.
No further details were revealed, leaving caregivers nervous about their future, she said.
“This has caught numerous caregivers off-guard who fear they won’t be able to meet the work requirements” in order to apply for permanent residency by Nov. 29, 2019, or under the requirements of some new policy, Drolet said. “Caregivers are not reassured ...”
Department spokeswoman Faith St. John said in response that both the Caring for Children and Caring for People with High Medical Needs programs were launched as five-year pilots and expire on Nov. 29, 2019.
“As with all pilot projects, we undertake a review process in order to decide whether or not to extend them. The review of the pilots is in no way about ending the pathway to permanent residency for caregivers.”
Options to replace the two pilots or make them permanent will be reviewed and announced before they expire in 2019, she added.
Drolet estimated there are 30,000 foreign caregivers in Canada, about 85 per cent of them from the Philippines.
The Harper government made it more difficult for foreign caregivers to achieve permanent residency be enacting tougher requirements related to education and language proficiency, she said. The result has been a significant decline in the number of caregivers granted permanent residency.