Canadian Immigration Law and Policy: Problems with Recent Changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program
Since 1990, Lawyer Walter Chi Yan Tom is the principal partner of a law firm specializing in immigration and business law but his real passion is community activism. Among his numerous volunteer activities, Lawyer Tom has been an executive board member and advisor of more than a dozen community and professional organizations, such as: the Canadian Bar Association- Quebec Immigration section, the American Association of Jurists- continental section the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals-Quebec, the Chinese Canadian National Council, the Federation of Filipino-Canadian Association of Quebec, Pinay, the Nigerian Association of Canada, the Centre for Research Action and Race Relations, the Montreal Mayor’s Foundation for Youth, a City of Montreal advisor on municipal policies on economic development, immigration and integration of ethnocultural communities, etc
Lawyer Tom can be contacted at 514-341-3929 or by email at walter@tomlex.ca
Today’s article deals with some of the problems resulting from recent changes to the Live-in Caregiver program examined in our previous article, with excerpts from a public letter written by Manuela Gruber Hersch, president of the Association of Caregiver & Nanny Agencies Canada.
Changes in April 2010 designed to protect Live-in caregivers and a decreased quota of permanent residence applications for 2012 have many in advocates and community people concerned about the program’s future.
The live-in caregiver program allows Canadian families to hire a caregiver from abroad to look after, for instance, young children, aging parents or disabled people in the home. The Canadian government has carved out a pathway to permanent residency that caregivers may choose to apply for after completing a certain number of hours of work within four years of entering Canada through the live-in caregiver program.
The government has targeted allowing 8,000 to 9,300 live-in caregivers to become permanent residents in 2012. That’s down from 12,000 to 16,000 in 2011.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says that the permanent residency quota is being cut due to a reduction in demand. Yet according to many employment agencies, demand for caregivers is still high.
The perception of reduced demand has been created by changes to the program and longer processing times. Last year’s changes put much of the onus on the families hiring caregivers to pay the upfront costs of bringing them to Canada.
Many families, for example some single parents or mothers on maternity leave, have become reluctant to pay recruitment fees, airfare, temporary health insurance, and immigration consultant fees for a caregiver from across the globe whom they have never met and with whom they have no guarantee if the relationship will work out. In some situations, caregivers accept jobs in rural areas then, upon arrival in Canada, leave to find a more appealing location.
Some question whether asking employers to bear the large financial burden is a hidden tactic to slowly and quietly eliminate the program. To make it more fair to employer families, some nanny agencies suggest that the government should consider spreading fees out after the caregiver has arrived and it has been established that the family does in fact have care in place.
There are 29,000 live-in caregiver program permanent residence applications in the pipeline and frustrated caregivers are waiting longer to receive their permanent residence status while they are apart from their own families. It’s a different scenario from the one Mr. Kenney promised in December 2009, when he said caregivers would now have a faster and easier path to permanent residency.
Caregivers are also still waiting for the much advertised “blacklist of employers,” unpublished since April 2010. Missing too is the new
information packages for live-in caregivers announced in December 2009.
To truly protect caregivers, the program needs a monitoring body to ensure that caregivers are protected and employers follow the rules. The government needs to monitor the program a lot better to guarantee that this very unique and highly complex program works for both parties.
Caregivers are also frustrated by the increased wait for their first stage approval in principle (open work permit) from six months to at least 18 months. Citizenship and Immigration Canada call centre agents tell some caregivers that the reason it is taking so long, is that once they get their open work permit, they stop working as a caregiver, which coincides with the feeling that the government is trying to deter employer families from hiring overseas.
Cumbersome and complicated
At the end of the day, the program provides some Canadian families a care solution for their children, elderly, or disabled loved ones. Employer families use the program due to the shortage of Canadians interested in this type of work. Yet, statistics show that 11,231 caregiver work permits applications were approved in 2008 and only 2,702 in the first half of 2011.
Further decline in the program is anticipated as employer families are refusing to risk their money and become fed up with the very cumbersome and complicated process including the extremely long processing times. However, Canadians haven’t stopped having children. The regulations of late have put the caregiver industry into a state of flux and possible hiring employer families have simply put off the decision until more certainty as to the fairness of the program can be redefined.
CIC has reduced targets for the program in order to focus on other immigration programs. But while the live-in caregiver program is a small part of overall immigration targets, it is disproportionately important to working Canadians and Canada’s aging population and should be exempted from target reductions. It is too vital of a program to Canadian families!
Don’t we want both parents to contribute to Canada’s economy or does this government want moms to stay home? Dual-income families put more money into the economy and raise our national tax revenue base. Today you need two income earners just to have an average standard of living. We also know that seniors stop spending money once they move into a care facility; shouldn’t we support our seniors to remain at home as long as possible with the help of a private caregiver?
If Mr. Kenney intends to keep the live-in caregiver program alive, he must make immediate remedies, but, most importantly, bring all parties to the table and come up with a just and equitable reform this time.
News Release –
Minister Kenney announces important change for live-in caregivers
Ottawa, December 15, 2011 — Live-in caregivers will be able to get open work permits about 18 months sooner, thanks to a processing change announced today by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.
“Too many live-in caregivers have completed their work obligations but must continue living in the home of their employer, waiting for their application for permanent residence to be reviewed,” said the Minister. “This is understandably frustrating. That’s why we have started issuing open work permits to live-in caregivers as soon as they have completed their obligations and submitted an application for permanent residence.”
The Live-in Caregiver Program ( LCP ) allows Canadian families to hire workers from abroad to provide care to a child, an elderly person or an adult with disabilities when there is a demonstrated shortage of Canadians and permanent residents to fill available positions. Caregivers are obliged to work for two years, or 3,900 hours, and then become eligible to apply for permanent residence in Canada.
Until now, live-in caregivers waited for an initial approval on their application for permanent residence before being eligible for an open work permit. An open work permit allows the caregiver to move out of their employer’s home and seek jobs in other fields, if that is their wish. As of December 11, 2011, all live-in caregivers who had met their obligations and submitted an application for permanent residence have had their files reviewed. Those who submitted an open work permit application with no missing information are being issued open work permits.
