Pinoy caregiver groups hit Canadian radio show

MANILA, Philippines - A radio show in Canada is under fire from several Filipino nurse groups there for the so-called "racist assumptions" made by the resource persons on the increasing number of foreign Live-In Caregivers, particularly Filipinos.

In a segment on senior caregivers last week, CBC Radio One’s, "The Current" interviewed a recruiter, an elder care advocate, as well as a Filipina caregiver.

At least two groups, the Filipino Nurses Support Group (FNSG) of British Columbia and Quebec as well as the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) have aired their concern on how the show dealt with the issue of live-in caregivers.

Both of them claimed the interviews did not delve deep into the issue of modern-day slavery brought about by the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) and instead resource persons just spewed out "racist" remarks.

Racist comment?

Pat Irwin, head of Eldercare Canada, said in the interview that despite the qualifications of Filipino caregivers who have university diplomas, they have very little idea about caring for the Canadian elderly.

“Okay, they have checked that the Philippine university [diploma] did exist in this person, that to me is just the baseline," Irwin said.

Citing reports reaching her office, Irwin added that some caregivers from “third world countries" were able to work in Canada despite having tuberculosis while another health care worker who juggled three jobs, was often caught sleeping on duty.

"What specific training do they get in elder care in Canada? You can’t just hand out the keys to a nanny and say, ‘good luck,’" she said over CBC radio on May 2 adding that a caregiver’s background must be double checked “to death".

FNSG cried fowl over Irwin’s statements saying it was "dehumanizing, and chauvinist rhetoric about Third World standards of care."

"None of those interviewed on the program gave an analysis or context to the Live-In Caregiver Program and instead allowed those interviewed to blame Filipino women for the current crisis in Canada’s healthcare system," FNSG said in a statement.

Live-in caregivers are required to stay at the homes of their elderly employers to care and assist for them. Most of them do household work such as preparing the meals assisting the elderly with their personal care such as going to the toilet and doing physical exercise.

“Many caregivers are highly skilled and educated in medically-related fields. Because their education and credentials are not recognized in Canada, they experience deskilling, despite being expected to perform medically-related tasks in the home," NAPWC said in a statement.

“Deskilling traps them in low-paying jobs even after they have completed the program and applied for permanent residency," they added.

In 2001, FNSG’s community-based research confirmed that many Filipino nurses doing domestic work and 24-hour home support work under the LCP face deskilling and stalled development.

Additional discriminatory accreditation barriers make it more difficult for Filipino nurses to return to the nursing profession.

"It is illogical for highly-educated Filipino nurses to work in Canada as modern-day slaves in the midst of a dire nursing shortage," the group said.

Good Business

Meanwhile, Andrea Texeira of Caregivers.ca said in the interview that about 90 percent of their caregivers hail from the Philippines.

Texeira also said that in the last six to eight months they have shifted 75 percent of their business to cater more to seniors.

When asked why there are more foreign workers being employed as caregivers, she said: “Not a lot of people want to be changing diapers [to the elderly] or providing home-based support for the price a caregiver is willing to do."

“The requirements of the LCP violate workers' dignity and make them vulnerable to unpaid overtime, isolation, abuse and deportation," said the NAPWC.

According to the group, the deployment of Filipino women providing child and senior care to Canadian families “has relieved pressure on the federal government to provide a national daycare program that would benefit all Canadians, not just those who can afford to hire a Live-In Caregiver."

“Similarly, the increasing reliance on Live-In Caregivers for elder care is a manifestation of the growing privatization of health care. For an ageing population, it is imperative that elder care be made accessible to all," they added.

FNSG in the other hand explained that under the LCP, caregivers must complete an employer-specific, live-in work contract for 24 months within a 36-month period while holding temporary work permits.

The group said that in 1992, Canada Immigration renamed the Foreign Domestic Movement (FDM), the nanny program for children, to the Live-in Caregiver Program that expanded to include the home support program for elderly and people with disabilities. Since the FDM, nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada to work as live-in caregivers.

End LCP

Since 1995, FNSG said they have been lobbying all levels of government and nursing institutions for the full accreditation and reciprocity of Filipino nurses.

“FNSG believes these changes will help advance the Filipino community’s full socio-economic and public participation in Canada and will help alleviate Canada’s nursing shortage and health crisis," they said.

The NAPWC meanwhile asserts that the LCP must be abolished as it only exploits Filipino labor particularly women.

"Today, our women, their children and the Filipino community at large face the harsh impacts of the program, including the criminalization and arbitrary deportations of Live-In Caregivers, rape, deskilling, family separation, forced prostitution, and the chronic underdevelopment of the Filipino community," said the NAPWC. - Mark Joseph Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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