Our Few and Just Demands for Caregivers
By Sol Pajadura
Migrante Ontario

I would like to thank the members of the Canadian media for coming to this press conference as we remember Jocelyn Dulnuan, a migrant worker who was murdered in her workplace, the house of her employer about one month ago, and other migrant Filipinos who have been victims of violence.

My name is Ma. Sol Prieto-Pajadura. Like Jocelyn I am a Live-in caregiver working for a family here in Toronto . I went abroad so that I could earn enough money to support my family back home. I have worked in Hong Kong and then here in Canada . I am the convenor and spokesperson of Migrante Ontario.

Migrante Ontario is the Ontario chapter of Migrante International, an alliance of more than 100 Filipino migrants' organizations across 22 countries. We have come together to advance the welfare and protect the rights of Filipino migrants and their families anywhere in the globe, including Canada .

To give you an appreciation of the magnitude of the problem of migration, consider that ten million Filipinos can now be found outside of the Philippines. Last year, an estimated 1.08 million Filipinos went overseas to work in more than 190 countries. That's almost 3,000 Filipinos leaving the country every day. Most have gone abroad as factory workers, service workers, seafarers and domestic workers.

All together this large number of overseas Filipinos sent home US$12.8 billion alone last year. We are the largest earners of foreign exchange for the Philippines . We keep afloat the high unemployment, low wages, export oriented, import dependent, debt driven Philippine economic development plans. The Philippine government needs us abroad and has systematically created all sorts of instruments to facilitate the export of Filipinos. But to our disappointment, the Philippine government has done little to promote the welfare and protect the rights of Filipinos abroad.

Canada is a major recipient of overseas Filipino workers. In 1996 alone, 6,500 Filipinos were exported to Canada . Last year we sent home to our families around $591 million. We are now regularly one of the top four sources of visible minority migrants to Canada and now number over a quarter million.

I would like now to focus on the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) because Jocelyn like myself came to Canada through the LCP. A significant number of our compatriots have come into Canada through the Live-in Caregiver Program of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Of the average 3,000 yearly who come in through the LCP, the overwhelming majority are Filipinas. The LCP is, therefore, an important vehicle for Filipino women to come into Canada.

Canadians should be happy to have us here. We contribute significantly to the fabric of Canadian society. We provide high quality child or elderly care to a significant number of Canadian families. We buy Canadian goods and pay Canadian taxes. We even contribute to Employment Insurance even though we cannot avail of such.

All that we ask for is that we be treated fairly, that our rights be protected, and that the Canadian government through its laws and policies do not contribute to our mistreatment, exploitation or endangerment.

The LCP is a program of Immigration and Citizenship Canada to bring women into Canada to fill caregiver jobs that Canadians do not want to take. The people brought in via the LCP come in with a kind of temporary worker permit that allows for landed immigrant status once the person has completed work of two years within a three-year period. Failing to complete that requirement, the LCPer is usually forced to leave Canada . The big problem is that visas through the LCP are tied to a specific employer.

In other words, they cannot work for anyone else on threats of deportation without applying for a new visa. But applying for a new visa can often take up to three to four months. Furthermore, employers are allowed to release caregivers for no reason at all. Switching employers therefore endangers the caregiver's immigration status. So the LCP puts barriers to caregivers seeking a different employer. This can have grave consequences if the work conditions are exploitative, or even dangerous. We note that the press has reported that Jocelyn had expressed concern for her safety. Some have asked why did she not leave? Did the LCP visa restriction play a role?

The contribution by the provincial government to the negative plight of live-in caregivers is twofold. One, employment agencies specializing in bringing women in through the LCP and placing them in live-in caregiver jobs have proliferated. They charge these caregivers between three and five thousand dollars for this service. Often they are involved in deceiving the caregivers of what jobs they actually have and what is or isn't permitted by Immigration Canada. Two, the implementation of the Employment Standards Act to the workplace of live-in caregivers, the homes of their employers, leave something to be desired. Caregivers are not slaves who can be made to work round the clock, and in lines of work outside of their contracts. They aren't housekeepers, carpenters, landscapers and gardeners, or animal caretakers.

Migrante Ontario has spearheaded the formation of the Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee because of the Philippine Consulate's reluctance to help Jocelyn's family. We are here to support the police's investigation. We seek justice for Jocelyn. We are watching.

Our demands are few and just. We demand of the Philippine Consulate that they promote the welfare of Filipinos abroad. We demand that they protect the rights of Filipinos abroad. We demand that if a Filipino comes to a bad end that the Consulate come quick to help bring the body home.

To the Canadian government, we demand that work permits and visas issued through the Live-in Caregiver program no longer be employer-restricted. To the Province, we demand that they regulate the employment agencies catering to caregivers. We demand that they hire sufficient inspectors and train them well on the situation of live-in caregivers so as to ensure that the Employment Standards Act is truly applied to caregivers. We also demand that the government create an industry-wide bargaining process for domestic workers.

(Speech delivered during the Nov. 4, 2007 Press Conference held at OPSEU on 31 Wellesley St. West, Toronto, organized by the Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee, a coalition of 21 member organizations and more than a hundred individuals.)