The Current - Migrant caregiver ‘in limbo’ after years working in Canada

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Teresa Andrade says she’s living in limbo after the federal government cancelled immigration programs that helped caregivers secure permanent residency in Canada. Andrade came from the Philippines in 2019 to work as a live-in nanny, but says she and many other caregivers may now need to leave Canada — or take the risk of staying here illegally. 

My name is Ian Urbina. I've reported on some pretty mind-blowing stories, but nothing like what happens at sea. If they got within 800 meters, that is when we would fire warning shots. Murder, slavery, human trafficking, and staggering environmental crimes. Men have told me that they've been beaten with stingray tails, with chains. If you really want to understand crime, start where the law of the land ends. The Outlaw Ocean. Available now on CBC Listen and everywhere you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast.

Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Thousands of caregivers are questioning if they will ever be able to stay and work in this country. Last year, the federal government ended two year, two pilot programs that allowed personal support workers and in-home childcare providers to come to Canada on temporary work visas. And these programs were pathways to permanent

residency. The government says it will launch new pilot programs, but it's not exactly clear when or how many spots will be offered, especially as the government is cutting the number of permanent residents overall. In the meantime, Teresa Andrade is facing an uncertain future. She may need to leave Canada or risk

staying here illegally. Teresa Andrade came to Canada in 2019 on a temporary work permit to provide living childcare. She's been working over the years through a patchwork of work permits and visitor visas. And Teresa, good morning. Hello, good morning. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. You have a lot on your plate though, so doing good in the midst of a lot of uncertainty must be tricky. Yeah. I'm still in a hopeful situation, although there's a limbo happening in immigration though. What is it like living in limbo? It's like uncertain like am I going somewhere more than Canada or can I stay in Canada? You came to this country from the Philippines.

Yes. Why was it important for you to come here to Canada for work? I am thinking about the future of my children. I have five kids. And they're at home in the Philippines. Yeah. They're studying. I need to provide money for them to continue study to give them like a bright future. That's a big sacrifice. I know, yeah.

What do you like about the work that you do? I am like giving time and you know my employer doesn't have time with her kid. If the mom doesn't have time with her kid then maybe it's me that give that to her, to the child, like give her, give him like tender loving care. You're the one who's helping to raise the child. Yeah. When you heard that these programs that would have provided pathway to permanent residency

were being canceled by the federal government, what went through your mind? It is so like depressing for me. You know, like I was, when I heard about it, I was so fussy because the immigration pillar said that caregiver can acquire PR soon. Mark Miller, he's the immigration minister. Yeah, immigration minister.

What did you tell him? You had the chance to sit down with him. Yeah. What did you say to him? I am telling him that days before my valid work permit will expired and I need an answer from him. I'm also like asking about regularization will be like out because I might or I might be included in that enhanced caregiver because I may be lost my work permit soon.

What did he say to you? What did Mark Miller say to you? He said that he will figure it out about my situation and how he's going to do with the regularization. You told the Globe and Mail when it comes to what you're looking for, you said, we have given so much to Canadian families, we've helped raise their children, we've paid our taxes, we're just looking for clarity

and a path to be able to call Canada home. This is where you want to say. Yes. for clarity and a path to be able to call Canada home. This is where you want to say. Yes, I just wanted to like give us dignity and humanity. It is what we deserve as a caregiver. We already given so much in this country, our time and effort. We have a life here already. We take care of the sick children

and yet we are not able to apply for PR. We're still in the uncertainty. You talked about living in limbo. Are you able to work now? Actually, no. No? No. So, what does this mean for your daily life?

I know. I'm just like friends and family are like giving me and supporting me. What are the options that you have? I mean, I'd said earlier that one of the things that you're trying to figure out is, and many people will may have to leave Canada or stay here underground illegally. I mean, what are you thinking about? Yeah, that may be my life soon. What would it mean if you had to leave Canada? Then my children will be in, like, I don't know. Because I am the breadwinner of the family.

So it's like a big deal for us. What would you say to people who are listening about the situation that you're in? Hear us. Include us. Like, don't forget us. The one that has, the one that was taking care of your children, caregiver who is like,

struggle so much here in Canada. While you were earning your, I'm sorry. It's okay. While they are earning their money, we are also like working with their family. We are taking care of their children and not a quarter of their salary is our salary. So we just wanted to be part of this country because we also have life here. We've

been here for my coworkers. We've been here like eight years, 10 years, and yet we're still struggling. We deserve PR situation also. This is home for you now. Yeah, six years. And like living here in six years without family is like a hole, you know? There's a hole in my heart. You are not with your family in this kind of situation. Like you don't know where you're going to. It's a big deal for the caregivers like us. Thank you for talking to us about this.

This is really hard, but I really do appreciate it. And I wish you the best of luck and thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Teresa Andrade has been working as an in-home child care provider in Toronto. Jenny Shaw is an assistant professor of sociology and politics at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. She's also a researcher with the Migrant Care Worker Precarity Project.

Jenny, good morning to you. Good morning. Thank you for having me. How common? Thanks for being here. How common are stories like Teresa's? You heard that it seems that she has a shrinking path toward the permanent residency that she expected in this country. Yeah, it's incredibly common. We've spoken with many caregivers throughout the course of our project,

as well as in working with our community partner, the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights. And many care workers have complicated stories of how their work permits have not been necessarily come to fruition in terms of giving a clear path to PR. And so they end up on work permit after work permit with precarity and uncertainty. And in all cases, I've been doing research

around migrant care work for 15 years. And the story of long-term family separation is one that I hear over and over again, affecting obviously care workers and mothers, but also children too, who wait almost often an entire childhood to reunite with their moms here in Canada. She's doing vital work in this country. I mean, she talked about this.

She's raising people's children in Canada. If it weren't for migrant workers like Teresa, who would be doing those jobs, do you think? Yeah, that's a really good question. So Canada has relied on migrant care workers, so migrant women and often racialized women, since the beginning of the early 1900s and then leading up to the 1950s when we started to develop the Caribbean domestic scheme to the 80s, where we saw the foreign domestic movement and into the 90s with the live-in caregiver program and

we have often dangled this carrot of permanent residency To care workers who are willing to come to Canada to do the work because we have such a gap in the labor market In terms of people in Canada Citizens not wanting to do the work under its current conditions. So it's often regarded as low paying work and often under very difficult conditions, including in-home work, which means that it is hard to create boundaries around work and hard to assert worker rights when the relationship is so

close with an employer. What do you think these new programs that might offer some path to permanent residency will look like? The federal government has promised to introduce these new programs, it would replace these pilot projects. So what could they look like, do you think? Yeah, well, hopefully the federal government follows through with its promise to provide care workers, 15,000 care workers with permanent residency immediately upon arrival. Why is that important? I mean, if people are here working, why is it important that they, through that work, have a path to permanent residency?

Yeah, well, it's always been important that they have a path to permanent residency because that is ultimately the goal that people come to Canada with, right? They enter into the program because they want to be able to settle here and bring their children here. So the belief is that if you're going to leave your children to come here and work, that's a sacrifice. But what we will give you in addition to pay, we as a nation, what we will give you in addition to pay is a path to stay here permanently and then reunite with your family here perhaps.

Absolutely. Yeah. And in so many cases in our work with care workers, we hear all the time that that is why they came. They came to build a better life for themselves and for their children. And the means to do that was through care work. And it's not that all of them necessarily don't want to do care work and want to leave care work, but the conditions of care work in Canada are incredibly difficult. And if we're going to, you know, if we're going to try and draw people here in order

to do care work and fill that part of our labor market, then what kind of long-term promise are we making? And that promise has been the promise of permanent residency. Immigration refugees and citizenships Canada says that there are more than 300,000 applications for permanent residency stuck in a backlog. The government is cutting immigration numbers. This has been the subject of now a political debate. People believe it will be an issue within the upcoming election whenever that happens to be as well.

Given all of that, how likely do you think it is that caregivers will actually have that opportunity to stay here permanently? That's a good question. that happens to be as well. Given all of that, how likely do you think it is that caregivers will actually have that opportunity to stay here permanently? That's a good question. So in our research, we not only spoke with care workers, but we did access to information requests from IRCC around care worker programs, including closed pilot programs

and the old live-in caregiver program. And we found over 30,000 PR applications are currently in inventory or are in limbo at IRCC, affecting both care workers themselves and their dependents, like their children, who are also on those applications. And so that means that there are 30,000 plus care workers and their dependents waiting for answers on their applications.

We also know from that information that IRCC has a target processing time of just 6 to 12 months, but in all cases of the most recent pilot programs and dating back to the old live in caregiver program which closed in 2014, that many of those applications have been sitting there for three, four, five years and sometimes even as long as 10 years. I have to let you go, but just very briefly, is your sense if people are still in limbo and their application doesn't move forward and their work visa, for example, expires, do you think people will leave or will many of those caregivers stay here and enter an underground economy? That's a really good question. I think a lot of them have worked so hard to get here that

they don't necessarily have the choice to easily leave. You know, I think that many of them don't want to work in the precarious situation of being an undocumented person here in Canada, but they've also, you know, essentially become, as we heard from your other guests, the breadwinner for their families. Their children are relying on them, and they hope that there'll be a smoother transition to the enhanced caregiver pathways,

our programs that are coming up soon, but it's so uncertain at this point what's going to happen with that. Their children, but also the children of people here in this country as well. That's right. Yeah, on both ends. Jenny, thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me. Jenny Shaw is an assistant professor of sociology and politics at Thompson Rivers University,

researcher with the Migrant Care Worker Precarity Project. We did request an interview or a statement from Canada's minister of immigration, Mark Miller, but we did not get a response. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell.

I'm Jeff Turner and I'm back with season three of On Drugs and this time it's going to get personal. I don't know who sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Mikael Scuderet is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Waterloo, So the story I just listened to from Theresa, this is heartbreaking. You know, the nanny program, what you're hearing there is not unique to nannies. This is something that's much more widespread. The biggest group are international students who've uprooted their lives and come here under a promise of being able to transition to permanent residency and find themselves in a similar precarious status right now.

There are over 3 million non-permanent residents living in Canada right now. It is anyone's best guess how many are hoping to stay. Where did that idea come from? That applying to a program, I don't want to just not get distracted because I think it's a bit of a separate issue with the international students, but when you take a look at these temporary workers, where was that idea coming from? That if you apply to that program, that meant that you would be able to stay here and become a permanent citizen. So that's a very deliberate policy.

We have moved since, began in the early 2000s, towards what's called two-step immigration. So when my family came to Canada, my father received permanent residency status while he was living abroad. So when we landed at Pearson, we were permanent residents on arrival. That's where that term landed immigrant comes from. That's very much a Canadian phenomenon that when you land your PR on arrival, we've moved towards what's called a two-step immigration system, where you first come

here on some temporary status, a work permit or a study visa, and then you transition to PR status. That works. There's a lot, you know, a lot of good that comes visa, and then you transition to PR status. That works. There's a lot of good that comes from that. It's kind of a probationary period. You could evaluate who's going to integrate, looking at their earnings, how well they're doing. You can kind of pick and choose and select better.

And so that's why we moved towards that system, but it wasn't managed well over the past decade. And so the number of people being issued temporary permits has grown at a much faster rate than the number of new permanent residents, which is capped. And so the government is trying to figure this out with these new programs. In June, when the government announced that there would be these programs, they have yet to be unveiled,

but they would fast track permanent residency for some caregivers. You tweeted, and again, these are your words, every low-skill caregiver who receives permanent would fast track permanent residency for some caregivers. You tweeted, and again, these are your words, every low skill caregiver who receives permanent residency status is a computer science grad from one of the country's top universities who doesn't. That is the economic trade off. Good if you benefit from low paid servant class,

not good if Canada's productivity emergency concerns you. Is this really a zero sum game? It literally is a zero sum. How is that a zero sum game? I guess I asked that in part because you wonder whether, how you can compare those two occupations. They both might be very valuable, but they're very different, right?

It's a zero sum game because the government caps the number of new PRs and they always hit that cap. So, I mean, you don't go over the cap. So, there's a certain number of slots there that need to be filled every year. And so filling the slot with one type of worker necessarily means it's not going to be filled with a different type. And so the crux of this map is this kind of longstanding issue in Canada about whether the objective of immigration policy should be to meet current labor market needs or whether it should be to try to leverage immigration to raise the human capital to the

skills of the population. And historically Canada's taken the latter approach. It's very much been focused on skills. We call it a skilled immigration system. It's been the enemy of the world. I think it's in large part what's responsible for Canada's exceptional record and being able to have high immigration levels combined with strong public support for immigration. But what we've seen in the past decade is a movement away from our… There's been a dismantling of our skilled immigration system. And I think that's a large part what's incentivized large numbers of lower skilled migrants to come to Canada and try their luck. But if you increase the number of those computer science grads from one of the country's top

universities and lower the number of caregivers, who takes care of your kids? So this is a huge part of the problem and the narrative we have. There's all this talk about labor market needs, as if there's some fixed amount of certain types of lower skilled workers that are needed in the economy for that economy to function. Economists don't think or don't believe that's how economies work. There's no fixed amount of caregivers that are needed in any economy for that economy to function.

You go around the world and look at how, what percentage of the labor force is comprised of people working as live-in caregivers, one-on-one care relationships. You know, that varies tremendously across countries. And so, economies, they don't just fall apart when pieces are missed. They're very organic. They adjust. Technology is one huge part of how they adjust. Practically, what does that mean? I mean, outside of how they adjust. Practically, what does that mean?

I mean, outside of large economic theory, I mean, what does that mean in terms of people's lives? Who's going to take care of it? Go to Japan. I mean, go to Japan. Look at how elderly people are taken care of in Japan. I mean, just automation of how you get people out of beds varies tremendously across countries, how you get elderly people out of beds.

The relationships like these are very inefficient, economically efficient relationships where you have private caregivers, one-on-one relationships in private homes, right? Moving to, and we've done this with childcare, right? We've invested a lot in childcare, more institutional settings that are more efficient where more people can be taken care of. That's the pressure you put on a system when you have tight labor markets. Wages rise. Now what you also do is you incentivize workers that otherwise wouldn't be doing these jobs because the working conditions are so poor that they are incentivized to enter these jobs

because they pay more. So there's lots of ways in which economies adjust. I think we have to allow economies to make those adjustments. I'm really glad to talk to you about this. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thanks for having me, Matt. Mikael Skudarud is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Waterloo, Director of the Canadian Labour Economics Forum. Your thoughts on this? If you have personal experience, particularly with living caregivers, you can email us at thecurrentatcbc.ca.