A fast track to citizenship
Re Don’t slam the door, Editorial, Feb. 7 Your editorial on foreign caregivers does not adequately address the underlying issues.
As a society, we do not want to pay well for caregivers for our children or elderly. Women have traditionally done this work essentially for free, and we do not feel it should be compensated at a good pay rate. This deeply undervalues the work of caregivers.
By dangling the chance of citizenship in front of foreign workers, we agree to continue to pay them poorly and not look too much into their working conditions and their removal from their own families.
By underpaying caregivers, we allow other people to work outside the family. The outside job is valued more than the caregiver’s work.
Caregiving requires a great deal of patience, empathy and hard, and sometimes unpleasant, work. We often ask people who are not relatives to be kind and even loving in performing this work.
Caregivers should be paid fairly — at more than minimum wage, with good benefits and time off.
Foreign workers should be compensated as fairly as anyone else.
Martha Gould, North Bay, Ont. I could not agree more with your editorial about the foreign caregiver program.
In 2009, I sponsored a foreign caregiver from the Philippines to care for my newborn and preschool children. A live-in caregiver was the most affordable option for our family, as daycare costs would have been $3,000 per month.
Our caregiver allowed me to return to work as a lawyer at a non-profit agency and to continue to build my career that took years of schooling to achieve.
In 2015, our caregiver was able to obtain permanent residency for herself, her spouse and their daughter. These newcomers now reside in their own home, work full time and pay taxes like other Canadians. Our wonderful caregiver sacrificed years with her own family to achieve this status in Canada.
The federal government needs to immediately rectify the current situation that blocks this path to citizenship.
Laura Shaw, Oakville I have long wondered at the ease of foreign caregivers to gain citizenship, all while sending millions of Canadian-earned money to another country. And given how the Canadian Revenue Agency mercilessly pursues lower-middle-class Canadians for tax mistakes honestly made, along with ignoring huge sums of deliberately hidden taxes by the rich, it is an ongoing miracle that anything gets done for those of us in the middle and lower classes.
Sandra Cowley, Scarborough
“By dangling the chance of citizenship in front of foreign workers, we agree to continue to pay them poorly and not look too much into their working conditions and their removal from their own families.”
MARTHA GOULD NORTH BAY, ONT.