The Nanny Diaries: Toronto’s Filipino caregivers talk about low wages, long days and immigration delays
SINCE 1992, some 75,000 Filipinos have become permanent residents of Canada through the federal government’s caregiver program. The sales pitch was hard to resist: help raise our children for two years, and we’ll reunite you with yours and give everyone a shot at permanent residency. Last year alone, some 23,687 Filipinos came to Canada under the program. But it has become a victim of its own success. Today, the backlog of applications for permanent residency is 17,600 names long. Citizenship and Immigration has promised swift action: it implemented an annual cap on the number of permanent residencies at 5,500, added educational and language components to the criteria, and announced plans to expedite the approvals process. But for many, the wait, which now averages 50 months—and that’s after two years of employment—is torture. At home, their kids are growing up without them. And with rock-bottom wages in the Philippines, going back isn’t a viable option. Here, the stories of five Filipina nannies whose lives are on hold as they await their fate.
Sheila Calica
Age: 38
From: Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines
Arrived in Canada: October 2008
Applied for Permanent Residency: October 2011
Caregiver Salary: $1,720 per month
Sent Home: $570 per month
TRAGEDY STRIKES
My father died from a cardiac arrest when I was 17. As the eldest girl in my family, I became a stand-in mother and father to my four siblings while my mom worked to put us through school. Thanks to her, I now have a degree in industrial technology.
COMING TO CANADA
In Toronto, I found work with a family with three kids. On my third day, they were running around the house with knives in their hands, and I couldn’t control them, so I just sat down and cried. They fired me the next day. For three years after that, I worked on a farm, cleaning the house, cooking and doing laundry while the kids were at school. I made only $1,000 a month, though I put up with it because I was grateful for the opportunity.
LIFE IN LIMBO
I applied for permanent residency in October 2011, and I was told that my application would take 36 months to be processed. I thought about it all the time and counted down the days. After 36 months, I called, and they told me that my application would now take a total of 39 months to process. The uncertainty worried me constantly. Last summer, my white blood cell count plummeted, and I had to take two weeks off work. The doctor’s diagnosis was stress. I wanted to quit, but I told myself it would be hard for the kids to adjust to a new nanny. The family fired me last June. I’ve since found part-time work in a factory and am hoping to find a new, full-time caregiver position when my health improves. It has been 45 months since I applied for permanent residency, and still no response.
Janeth Melitante
Age: 39
From: Sorsogon, Philippines
Arrived in Canada: June 2012
Applied for Permanent Residency: November 2014
Caregiver Salary: $1,400 per month
Sends Home: $600 per month
Works In: Lytton park
A MAJOR SACRIFICE
I made just $100 per month when I was working for a lending institution in the Philippines. I decided to move to Hong Kong in 2005 so my boys—four and five at the time—would receive a good education back home. My hope was to send them to university.
COMING TO CANADA
Some nannies I met in Hong Kong told me that Canada was a good place to work. Minimum wage was $10.25; my contract stated that I’d make $1,000 per month, working six hours per day—which came out to roughly $8 per hour. But one of the families who hired me expected me to work 12 hours a day, which meant I earned about $4 per hour. It was awful. I missed my family and feared I’d made a terrible mistake. I lived in the nanny suite in the basement. An ex-boss would sometimes text me at night asking me what I was up to. He made me feel uncomfortable, and I wouldn’t respond.
LIFE IN LIMBO
My new boss is a lawyer, and she’s disgusted by the way I was treated by my former employers. I look after her three kids, aged three, five and seven, and I cook, tidy up the house and do the laundry. I haven’t considered what I’ll do if my application is rejected—I prefer not to even think about it. My friends, who do clerical work in the Philippines, make just $300 per month. It would be hard to start over at my age. My sons are 14 and 15 now. They live with my father back home. I visited them this past March and they followed me everywhere I went. When I had to leave, my elder son took it the hardest. He cried as he hugged me goodbye and escaped to his room before I left. I miss them both so much.
Mary Jane Magat
Age: 46
From: Pampanga, Philippines
Arrived in Canada: June 2009
Applied for Permanent Residency: June 2011
Caregiver Salary: $2,000 per month
Sends Home: $1,000 per month
Works In: Blake-Jones
NATURAL DISASTER
In 1995, Mount Pinatubo, a volcano about 85 kilometres from my home, erupted, flooding the surrounding area in a heavy mixture of water and rock—inside our house, it reached my knees. Everything we owned was destroyed. I took my kids to a nearby school, where we slept on pieces of cardboard, 10 families to a room. Eleven years after the disaster, the government completed a resettlement area, and my kids and I were given a house to live in. But salaries in Canada are three times what they are in the Philippines, so I decided to leave, with the hope we’d eventually be reunited.
COMING TO CANADA
I worked as a nurse’s aide at an elderly care facility in Taiwan for seven years, then came to Canada. A family at Pape and Danforth was impressed with my resumé, especially the fact that I had looked after a patient who suffered from seizures. Six years later, I’m still with my first bosses. I take care of the kids, who are four and seven, tidy the house and sometimes cook them Filipino dishes like pancit and adobo.
LIFE IN LIMBO
In September 2011, my boss bought me a round-trip flight home. I was speechless. I hadn’t seen my children in nine years. My middle son is now 24 and has been removed from my application because he no longer meets the age requirement. My ex-husband and I split because he started cheating on me, but I met a man here, and we’re getting married in September. I’m excited to start a life with him and, hopefully, my youngest son. It has been four years since I applied, and I’m hoping that I’ll be approved soon so my kids can attend our wedding.
Rosalinda Umpad
Age: 49
From: Nueva Ecija, Philippines
Arrived in Canada: June 2009
Applied for Permanent Residency: November 2012
Caregiver Salary: $2,200 per month
Sent Home: $1,400 per month
Worked In: Riverdale
ADVERSITY AT HOME
I taught home economics and English literature in the Philippines for almost 20 years. My husband was a mechanical engineer. In 1997, he was diagnosed with skin cancer. I spent $22,000 on treatments over the next six years and still have $5,000 to pay off.
COMING TO CANADA
I made only $300 a month as a teacher, so when my husband died, I didn’t have enough money to support my two children and my mother. In 2006, I left for Dubai. Though my girls were only nine and 16, I think they understood the financial predicament we were in. Leaving them was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. The family that employed me in Dubai had a newborn child with bad asthma, so I was like his nurse. When I decided to move to Canada in 2009, they bought my plane ticket and gave me $2,000.
LIFE IN LIMBO
I’m looking for work right now—I was employed by a couple at Dundas and Broadview, but they got a daycare spot and had to let me go. Before that, I sent home $350 a week to pay for my daughters’ university tuition and my mom’s thyroid medication. I haven’t been home to see my kids in almost 10 years. When I left, my younger daughter hung a photo of me inside the mosquito net that surrounds her bed. She would talk to my picture before she went to sleep. I try to keep myself busy so I don’t think about how much I miss them. I rent an apartment at Victoria Park and Lawrence, which costs $575 per month, and until I was let go, I would commute about an hour each day. My daughters are studying hotel and restaurant management. They tell me that when they arrive here, they’ll find work, and I’ll finally be able to rest.
Jesusana Bautista
Age: 47
From: Nueva Ecija, Philippines
Arrived in Canada: January 2010
Applied for Permanent Residency: June 2013
Caregiver Salary: $2,000 per month
Sends Home: $800 per month
Works In: Yorkville
STARTING OVER
The small farming business my husband and I owned failed, and we were desperate for money. Our son was only seven when I left for Hong Kong, where I worked from 2000 to 2010, caring for a little boy who lost his mom when he was only six. I became the mother figure in his life. When he turned 13, I felt it was time to move on, and I decided to move to Canada, because I knew that once I got permanent residency, my family could join me, and we’d finally be able to live happily, together.
COMING TO CANADA
I was sponsored by a family in Gatineau, Quebec, and I ended up living with them for nearly five years. I earned $1,200 a month. They were kind and very good to me, but they were very demanding; I worked from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday.
LIFE IN LIMBO
I moved here last July, and my agency placed me with a family in Yorkville. I look after their three-year-old boy. I live with my cousin and her family. I often think about what it would be like to own a home. My son is 21 now, and I’ve missed a lot of important moments in his life. Since I’ve been in Canada, I’ve only been back once. I talk to my husband and son on Skype every night between 9 p.m. and midnight Toronto time. They always ask about my application. In June, its status changed to “reviewing documents and waiting on final decision.” I don’t know when that decision will be made. When I hear about people who have been approved, I can’t help but get frustrated. I’ve survived mainly because of my dreams, which are simple: I want a house, even if it’s small, and a car. If my husband and son can get good jobs here, I think both things are possible.
Can the entire Filipino community in Canada agree NOT TO VOTE CONSERVATIVE!! Anybody but Conservative! BUT do your research before voting, vote splitting will help Harper! Conservatives killed the caregiver program and many caregivers are suffering , waiting 50+ month for their PR. This is an attack on the Filipino community so why would you vote for them??????
I don’t know if it’s fair to be blaming the conservative government for the current state as the previous Liberal government weren’t any better of expediting the backlog. Trust me, my girlfriend from Bulacan is stuck in the same situation and I find it difficult to fathom that people who come here to work are stymied while bogus refugees do better.
The program exploded under the Conservatives, they looked the other way while employers and recruiters exploited caregivers for years and years.They made stupid changes to ” protect” caregivers which was useless.They want the Filipino votes but don’t want to give ” low skilled” caregivers PR. Why else is there 60.000 backlog for caregivers PR?? How long were caregivers waiting for PR under the Liberals???? NOT 50 + PLUS
I agree with Mr. Silver. It would be unfair to blame the Conservatives. I’m of the opinion that we do away with the program altogether.
As a Filipino-Canadian myself, I don’t think that our government intentionally went out of their way to inconvenience Filipinos. We deserve better, most definitely. I wouldn’t bellyache over the internet to total strangers, though. I would go out and vote.
I’m an NDP supporter myself. But if you think the Liberals do better, please be my guest. Just don’t forget that the apple does not fall far from the tree.
http://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/20/Prime-Minister-Pierre-Trudeau-took-considerable-heat-from-the/3389411886800/
The reason it happened is a double edged sword. The conservatives had no clue how badly backlogged the system was and tried to expedite matters not realizing how many applications were there. It caught them completely off guard and yes, that was wrong. I lay the blame directly at Citizenship and Immigration Canada for allowing this and not properly processing the applications prior. Instead of having the files as accepted, rejected or pending, they put EVERYONE on hold and that is not acceptable.
The Canadian foreign caregiver program has been monopolized and manipulated by people from the Philippines for years. Because it offers the potential of permanent residency after only two years of employment in Canada, Filipinos see it as their means to eventual immigration to Canada as individuals and for family members. This program almost exclusively recruits Filipino people as candidates which has become so ingrained in their psyche as the norm. As result, the Filipino caregivers have developed a mentality of entitlement where they assume they have a right to immigrate to Canada.
There needs to be major examination of this program and to discern why outreach has been limited to only this one ethnic community.
Why are no efforts made to instead recruit candidates from Central and South America, specifically people who are indigenous to the Americas? It is very suspicious that the government of Canada goes to lengths to bring workers for this program from overseas who have no historical and blood ties to this continent. The indigenous people (First Nations and Inuit) make up less than 5% of Canada’s total population and yet the Canadian government continuously overwhelms the country mostly with people from overseas in the hundreds of thousands. And it should be emphasized that First Nations and Inuit people do not get consulted in these decisions to bring these people here.
Finally, some hints to the ignorant/do-not-care masses/public of the epic family/children destruction aspects of the TWFs-Cnd version = “New Type of Newcomers – Asynchronous Immigration”(tm).
The key problem in this TWFs-Cnd version may be that Cnd is NOT Germany!
1) Cnd being some 25-40 years latecomer to the TWF ‘field’ cf. Germany and its “Gastarbeiter” ‘program’ from 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s …
2) When Germany started its “Gastarbeiter” in 1960’s, it was of course ‘Cold War’ and ‘Globalization’ was NOT a monster it is now. Then “National Sovereignty / Borders” were political buzzwords, culminating in the Helsinki Accord vocabulary …
3) On Friday afternoon, TFWs/”Gastarbeiter”s would and still can sit in their second-hand Mercedes, Opels, etc. and drive long to their homes/wives/kids in Southern Italy, former Yugoslavia (which WAS open to EU), Greece, and, yes, even driving to their villages/homes/wives/kids in Turkey.
4) Late on Sunday nights, they would then drive back to work place in Germany.
5) (tongue-in-cheek)
TFWs-Cnd version, however, can NOT
(even if majority could afford second-hand cars – which they can not)
on Friday start driving to their homes/husbands/wives/kids Westbound across landmass and then across Pacific,
or Southbound across landmass to Latin A. (with detours across the Caribbean Sea),
and expect to report to work back on Monday.
Planes can not help either – only cca 1000 km/hr.
Only hopes for TFWs-Cnd version are new rocket-based public transportation .
6) Understanding is that Germany did NOT have an obsolete tax system incompatible with their new reality of “Gastarbeiter”s,
as TFWs-Cnd version has.
Cnd’s dysfunctional so-called ‘tax system’ / 50-yrs obsolete ITA (Income Tax Act) / CRA ,
its ‘procedures’/’work flow’/’processing’ were designed for totally different societal structure and demographics based on “Landed Immigrant” system – people got approved abroad, and then the WHOLE family arrived (‘Landed”) at the SAME time.
In other words, the whole family became the “Residents for Tax Purpose” at the SAME time.
Ask anybody with deeper understanding/knowledge of Cnd ‘tax system’ / ITA / CRA about the intractable and convoluted situations where one spouse (TFW)
can at the same time be both a resident for tax purpose and a non-resident for tax purpose (sounds schizophrenic? you bet …)
while other spouse and kids are still, and so for years and years, non-residents for tax purpose.
Or, single-mom being not only TFW but also, even more tax-complicating/convoluting, at the “Special Work Site”
(so-called ‘Employer’=’Landlord’ must be at such work site from Sunday night to at least Friday evening, etc.) – a TFW LiC (Live-in Caregiver):
factually NOT “Resident for Tax Purpose” but dysfunctional 50 yrs obsolete ‘tax system’/’stakeholders falsely placing her in the ‘Resident for Tax Purpose’ siuation so that ‘Payroll’ / ‘deduction at the source’ machinery can grinds and squeezes,
while her kid(s) are of course non-resident for tax purpose
BUT is/are still under mom’s care whereby mom in her ONLY existing domestic establishment she maintains in her home country organizes for the kids’ care while (for prolonged time) she is at her ‘Special Work Site’.
Clue: Line 305 – Eligible dependent (formerly equivalent to spouse) , worth ~ $2,000 ( Ontario figure) EACH year for such single-mom TFW LiC.
7) Consequently, massive, gross breaches of fundamental human Rights, Womes’s long-ago won Rights, Charter Rights, Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, … –
causing harm of $100M+ missing, omitted, erred, including cover-up/maliciously, to them.
Which needs / have to be recovered, up to 10 yrs back …
—————–
One would hope the above is Sapient Sat .
In next post, concerns about accuracy etc.of the statistics quoted in this article will be addressed.
Now, concerns about accuracy etc. of the statistics quoted in this article:
Quote 1:
“… SINCE 1992, some 75,000 Filipinos have become permanent residents of Canada through the federal government’s caregiver program …”
Concern 1:
From http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/menu-fact.asp
“Facts and figures 2000 – 2014: Immigration Overview: Permanent residents”.
it appears that the quoted 75,000 are P.A’s (PRIMARY Applicants) ,
i.e. LiCs THEMSELVES ONLY, NOT their kids/husbands, for those who have had them.
Given that in the same period (2000-2014) 50,898 spouses and dependants of TFW LiCs became PRs,
providing only 75,000 figure instead of 75,000 + 50,898, does NOT tell the real number of those who became PRs only and solely because of the Live-in Caregiver (LiC) category.
Quote 2:
“… Last year alone, some 23,687 Filipinos came to Canada under the program ”
Concern 2:
One serious obstacle in discussing the TFW issue are confusion with and incorrect usage of ‘coming to Canada’ phrase, stemming from the old time when vast majority of ‘come to Canada’ meant arriving to Canada as PR approved abroad,
whereas today there is a proliferation of becoming PR and thus ‘Canadain’ via process/applications from-within-Canada, i.e. newly PR ‘Canadians’ have already been in (came to) Canada for a long.
In this context, the article’s “… came to …” in the above Quote 2 can only formal logically be:
“… Last year alone, some 23,687 Filipinos came to Canada as TFW LiCs …”
If so, 23,687 figure is too high.
It may be NEWLY arrived in 2014 LiCs + ALREADY existing LiCs,
i.e. NOT NEWLY arrived only.
See
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/menu-fact.asp ,
“Facts and figures 2013: Immigration Overview: Temporary residents” .
[ “… 2014 … Temp. residents” NOT yet available !]
Table 3.1 – Temporary Foreign Worker Program work permit holders by program and sign year:
TWF LiCs signed (up) in 2013 = 11,079 !
– Table 2.3 – Temporary Foreign Worker Program work permit holders by program: TWF LiCs holding TFW work permits in 2013 = 23,848
—————
While I feel for the particular individuals named in this story, the facts and figures provided herein are awfully skewed. The Philippines is the source country for the HIGHEST number of PR’s to Canada (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2014/permanent/10.asp). The vast majority of these individuals arrive as caregivers, meaning they are generally not educated or qualified to the same standards as the rest of the immigrants who qualify through other programs. Why are we setting the bar so low for some, and so high for everyone else? Isn’t our immigration policy aimed at targeting those that would make a positive economic impact on Canadian society?
There have been numerous horror stories about the rampant abuse of the system by caregivers themselves. Former Immigration Minister Kenney visited Manila and during his presentation, the only questions asked related to how the audience could circumvent the rules to get to Canada faster. I personally know of multiple caregivers who have sponsored their own siblings as caregivers as soon as they get their PR. How in the world can a nanny making $1,800 a month, with a family, afford to hire her sister to be her nanny at $1,800 a month? Why is this even allowed?
To make things worse, caregivers have been petitioning to receive PR immediately upon arrival to Canada. If this outrageous system is implemented, they would be the ONLY class of immigrants whose only qualifications would be 1 year of work experience or a 6 month course. This is a recipe for an economic disaster.
Conservatives didn’t “kill” the caregiver program. They tried to implement reforms to prevent the abuse that had become rampant across the system, and should be lauded for doing so. there was no “attack” on the Filipino community, and the Philippines still represents the #1 source country for PR’s to Canada.
How big is that chip on your shoulder? Big enough that it doesn’t enable you to see straight would be my thought. The Canadian foreign caregiver program is open to everyone. No one has monopolized it. There isn’t an immigrant worker that sacrifices as much, works as hard, puts up with more crap, for little remuneration and barely complains. We are a better country with them here.
are you kidding me? these unskilled nannies should not be given PR status in the first place. Immigration is not for creating vote banks. Canadian caregiver should be given decent wage instead of giving PR and free health care to these nannies.
this caregiver program must be scrapped all together. Caregiver program has become family reunification program for filipino community and punjabis. Canafdian tax payers cant afford anymore unskilled workforce to immigrate here. Give canadians fair wage and scrap this program period.
100% agree. filipinos exploit the program. this program must be scrapped.
Everybody can be hard working if given decent wage. We dont want canadian money to be drained out to philippines. We want our money here , to be spent on us.
Canadian immigration is hijacked by filipinos. We tax payers must step in, otherwise politicians will keep abuse immigration to increase their vote counts.
As a nanny myself, it is quite frustrating to hear a comment like yours, Jewel B. Immigrant workers put up with low wages, awful working conditions and long hours. And you’re right, they don’t complain, they accept it. So, when I ask for an acceptable living wage, I have to deal with families complaining to me that they can get someone to work for 10$/hour and who will clean their house to boot. So excuse me if I have no sympathy for them.
What about the caregivers who exploited the system by sponsoring relatives who came to Canada and immediately went on welfare? What about all the caregivers who were brought over at a high cost by employers, and then left immediately upon arrival to find cash paying illegal jobs elsewhere? Why are you so focused on benefits for the caregivers while turning a blind eye to the mess they are causing in our country?
Well said
The Live-in Caregiver program was the best thing that happened to me. I came here as a nanny in May of 1999, applied for PR in May of 2001 (2 years later) and got my Permanent Residency in December of 2001 (7 months wait). You do not have wait 60 months if you are applying as a sole applicant. I made a choice not to put my parents, grandparents and siblings on my application because I could not support them and I did not think it was right to make them someone else’s responsibility (e.g. social programs)
Instead, I saved my wages, went to university (undergraduate and graduate degrees) and got a high paying job. The government did not killed the program. Bogus nannies, bad employers and individuals who barely could support themselves but wanted to bring their entire extended family to Canada killed the program. The government had to act to do something about the out of control program that no longer was doing what it was designed to do. It is unfortunate that actions of the few made things more difficult for everybody.
Friend of mine and her pork chop husband hired a live in Filipino nanny and her husband ends up knocking her up. He then leaves her to raise two special needs boys they just had adopted on her own. Yep great program. Canada is full, don’t need any more people. Lets take care of our own kids.
I think it is wrong that these women having to leave their children behind in order to raise someone else’s children. Do the people who hire nannies not feel any guilt about this?
Your question is odd.These women are rational human beings, they made a choice to leave their children behind in order to earn a living by watching someone else’s children. (Perhaps the benefits of coming to canada outweighed the financial and emotional costs of temporary family separation) Employers are rational human beings as well. Daycare is expensive. If you have 2 or more children, it is cheaper to have a live-in nanny who will also feed the kids, do their laundry, do some light house cleaning. I think one of the stories even stated that a nanny’s employer even paid for her trip back home so that she can spend time with her family.
I am saddened to see so many negative comments about Filipino’s and the program here. We have been fortunate enough to have one of these nannies, Jane, with us for the past six years. She has become a part of our family, and our children love her with all their hearts. Jane has sacrificed so much to provide for her own family, and works harder than anyone I have ever met. If she and other caregivers are good enough to care for our loved ones, they deserve to have their loved ones with them.
Jane works for me. On the rational side working for us gives her family opportunities they would never have had if Jane had stayed in Taiwan. It saddens me that Jane has had to sacrifice so much to help them. What saddens me so much more is that there are so many barriers to her being united with her family. I have never met someone who exemplifies all that is best about being a Canadian. Jane is hard working, supportive of other members of the community, and loyal to a fault. My wife, children, and I stood for her family at her recent wedding. I was honoured that Jane asked, happy to do it, and ashamed that my country forced me to stand for the family that deserved to be there with her.
Taking care of another person’s child is a SKILL.
They don’t like the way things are here go back to your mud huts it was a philipino who killed my dog and drove away with no remorse it was a philipino who gathered all his people and over thrown a perfectly good board management team and now they run around like chickens not knowing what the hell to do to serve 52 families. Everyone of them have a sob story to tell.and if they live with the elderly they hope and pray that they will leave you there home.if not they will steal you blind. This is fact not some rant.