Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Features

MONTREAL (CUP) -- You see them in the park pushing strollers - brown women with white babies. Commonly known as "nannies," these women work in Canada to support their families back home, as part of the Live-in Caregiver Program. The following testimonies from three Filipino women reveal the program is not all it claims to be.

The Live-in Caregiver Program is an anachronism - a throwback to the time of indentured servants. In a different era, people sold their labour in exchange for basic essentials and passage to a new country. While most Western countries now have more equitable labour systems, vestiges of these older worlds remain.

The Live-in Caregiver Program, an adaptation of the 1981 Foreign Domestic Movement program, was introduced in 1992 to attract immigrants to Canada to work as live-in domestic help. People who enter through the Program are overwhelmingly women of colour from impoverished countries, which rely on foreign remittances to stimulate their economies. According to research from Filipino groups, over the past 25 years more than 5,000 women have come to Canada every year. Today, Filipino women account for over 80 per cent of all domestic workers in Canada.

Under the Program, live-in caregivers can apply for a Canadian permanent resident visa - but only after two years of caregiver employment, which must be completed within three years of their arrival in Canada. If they fail to fulfill this requirement, they can be deported.

Live-in caregivers must possess the equivalent of a Canadian Grade 12 education supplemented with domestic training, and reside in their employers' houses.

Critics argue that this situation leaves domestic workers vulnerable to abuse - fearful of losing their job and not completing the two years, they usually remain silent rather than complain. Additionally, with no method of monitoring how many hours caregivers work, they often perform undocumented overtime and earn less than minimum wage.

Filipino groups in Canada have criticized the program for deskilling and exploiting women. Some groups like the Philippine Women's Centre of Quebec consider the program too problematic to reform, and have called for its abolishment.

I was in the Philippines when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo increased repression of progressive political groups in February 2006. Students were having protests around the country and my school was in the thick of things. I remember facing policeman, with long guns, who were part of special S.W.A.T teams.

Continued...

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