Families ‘blindsided’ as future of caregiver program is in flux
Demand for foreign workers is ‘as great as ever,’ parents say
Growing up, Natalie Mukherjee and her sisters were cared for by Filipino nannies. Her family had two Filipino nurses taking turns to look after their late grandmother. Now a mother of three, she gets help from a Filipino live-in caregiver.
Despite its many reincarnations through the years, the foreign caregiver program has been an integral part of Canadian immigration since women from England, Ireland and Finland were granted permanent residence in the early 1900s to come as “nannies,” “nursemaids” and “governesses.”
With Ottawa set to start public consultations on the future of the caregiver program, Canadian families say the demand for foreign caregivers, especially in suburban Canada, is as great as ever.
Earlier this month, the federal government announced the current caregiver program will expire in November 2019 after a five-year run. The news has raised questions among families and caregivers about the future of the popular program.
“We have an aging population and are caught up in a generation where our parents are still working and our kids can’t rely on their grandparents,” said Mukherjee of Markham. She and her husband, an accountant, have two daughters and a son, all under 7 years old.
“Canadians are not picking up nanny jobs and there’s a wait-time galore for daycare spots. We work odd hours and the flexibility of having a live-in caregiver is something that no daycare can replace.”
Canada’s caregiver program is unique because it allows a group of what are generally considered “lowskilled” migrant foreign workers to become permanent residents, along with their families, based on their commitment to work as full-time caregivers for a minimum of two years.
The access to permanent status was bait, in the past, for the workers to leave behind their families back home and work as live-in caregivers in Canada — a hard-fought right by the “Foreign Domestics Movement” in the 1980s. Other low-skilled temporary foreign workers such as farmworkers do not have such access to permanent residency.
At 6 months old, Nikki Benun’s son, Gabriel, was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia with less than a 50-per-cent chance of survival.
“It’s a trauma when your family goes through that,” said Benun, who has two other children.
It was during Gabriel’s treatment that a friend of Benun’s suggested she reach out to Chai Lifeline Canada, a pediatric support agency helping families cope with what can be devastating challenges in life.
“They would come to the hospital. They would do grocery shopping for us,” she said. “They just tried to support in any way we needed it.”
Gabriel, now 6, has been a recipient of its services for almost his entire life, Benun said.
The charity provides 22 year-round services that include financial assistance, tutoring, counselling, meal support or trips to Disney World — all of which are free.
“When a family gets a diagnosis, such as cancer, the entire family gets put into disarray,” said Mordechai Rothman, Chai Lifeline’s executive director. “We believe the illness af- fects the entire family and we take a very holistic approach to support them.”
The charity operates in Toronto and Montreal and has satellite services in Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver. Rothman said the agency supports 400 families in the GTA and 150 in Montreal.
It’s mostly funded by the community, though there are some government subsidies, he said.
“Our organization works extremely close with these families, one-on- one, to understand how their needs are constantly evolving and changing and provide support to them,” he said.
Chai Lifeline’s office in Wilson Heights was a hive of activity on Family Day: children made crafts and watched the sleight of hand work of a magician. In the afternoon, the charity visited kids stuck inside the Hospital for Sick Children and continued its work there.
While the charity primarily focuses on kids, it has broadened its scope to support parents, too.
Heidi Wilk, a mother of three, likened her late husband’s illness to an emotional roller-coaster. But when Chai Lifeline stepped in, she said she felt more secure and could better focus on the needs of her husband, who died in 2015 of brain cancer.
“It’s very overwhelming and isolating when you’re faced with an illness like this,” she said. “(The charity) gave me respite, activities, events, so we could get a break.”
She said case workers are on call around the clock to listen and give advice.
Gabriel is small for his age, a reminder of his fight with leukemia and continuing health complications. His mom calls him a “firecracker” for his big personality and shock of red hair. She said he’s excited for Chai Lifeline’s summer camp in upstate New York.
“I feel like they’re our extended family,” she said. “They’re always there, they’re always present, but they’re not invasive. It makes us feel loved and cared for and that we’re not forgotten.”