The Workers Caring For Our Grandparents Are Paid Poverty Wages

Kim White started her job at a nursing home in Florida five years ago hoping it would open the doors to a fulfilling career. Instead, she’s been paid so little that her dreams have been indefinitely put on hold.

The certified nursing assistant job “was something that I wanted to use as a stepping stone to get into nursing school,” she said. “But it just always ended up being that it was never enough pay.”

Caregivers are needed more than ever, but burning out

Debbie Berry, a 60-year-old retail worker, was forced to go on social assistance in order to stay at home with her elderly father, who has liver cancer, dementia and mobility challenges.

Lyndon Blackbird, a 50-year-old business analyst, put his career on hold to provide round-the-clock care to his wife, who has early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Abuse and barriers increase under new caregiver program regulations

Despite Immigration Minister Chris Alexander's promises to the Filipino and migrant communities that theNovember 2014 changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program provided greater protections to caregivers and quickened processing times, the opposite has occurred.

According to the Caregiver Action Centre's Karina Francisco, the new changes have made caregivers more vulnerable to employer abuse, have increased processing times, and have resulted in a 90 per cent rejection rate for new caregiver applications.

Harper government's changes to Live-in Caregiver Program harm workers

On November 22, 2014,caregivers and their allies gathered in front of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's offices in downtown Toronto to protest the provision of caps to the numbers of caregiver entries to Canada and new language and licensing requirements for caregivers.

Brandishing placards stating "Conservatives' New Laws Hurt Caregivers" and "Stop Stealing Permanent Residency from Caregivers," those present were unanimous in their belief that the new changes hurt caregivers and that caregivers deserved landed status upon arrival.

During the rally, Caregiver Action Centre's Johnna Anipuesto argued that "caregivers should not back down in the fight for permanent residency." Long-time caregiver activist Coco Diaz concurred, adding that she has been fighting for landed status upon arrival for caregivers for 30 years. She drew attention to how improvements to Canada's migrant domestic worker programs, which include getting the opportunity to apply for permanent residency in 1981, occurred only because domestic workers fought for this right. 

Why Is Stephen Harper Sending Domestic Workers Back to 1973?

"We scrub the floors, we cook the meals, we raise the children -- why aren't we good enough to stay?" asked Eulene Boyce, a West Indian domestic worker.

"We are here ... united in our stand ... calling for an end to the system of indentured servitude which, since 1973, has denied over 60,000 domestic workers the right to landed status in Canada," added a spokesperson for INTERCEDE (International Coalition to End Domestics' Exploitation)

Foreign caregivers backlog grows as families wait for residency

The number of individuals waiting for permanent resident status under a program that brings foreign caregivers and nannies to Canada has ballooned to more than 60,000, according to documents released under an access to information request.

More than half of those individuals waiting for permanent residency are the spouses and children of foreign caregivers already living in Canada, according to documents obtained under access to information and given to CBC News.