National Statement
For immediate release
November 28, 2011
Toronto, ON – With the recent announcement by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to slash approvals of over 7,000 permanent residency applications made through the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), progressive Filipino Canadians firmly maintain that under the Conservative government’s policy-imposed age of austerity for all working-class Canadians, no amount of change or “improvement” can be made to the LCP and the endemically exploitative nature of the immigration system itself while it continues to stamp and seal entry to workers to toil under conditions of modern-day slavery.
With the passage of two years since Kenney’s holiday announcement of cosmetic changes to the LCP, we have seen no real improvement in the conditions of the Filipino Canadian community. Instead, amidst a worsening healthcare crisis and an ailing global economy, we have only witnessed the continuing marginalization and exploitation of Filipino Canadian women, youth and workers. We refuse to be duped by the blatantly aggressive attacks against our community as the unabated expansion of temporary migration continues to extend our vulnerability and to hold us hostage to our immigration status while we now face longer processing wait times for open permits and permanent residency status.
Under the Conservative government, Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) plan to expand temporary migration includes reducing the number of caregivers granted permanent status—to 9,000 in 2012, down from 16,000 this year—and extending wait times for open permit applications from six to eight months to up to 18 months. Also, the development of the “Supervisa” for parents and grandparents has phased out permanent residency and family reunification through parent and grandparent sponsorship indefinitely. It is no accident that such slashes and cuts are occurring while recorded applications for entry under the LCP are at their highest, and while demand for the cheap, yet skilled provision of childcare and healthcare is at its peak.
Members of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) assert that the LCP has never been an answer for Canada’s childcare and healthcare needs. Instead, it has merely provided a temporary, low-wage and privatized solution for our inadequate and declining healthcare system. Since its implementation in the 1980s, it has systematically brought over 100,000 Filipino women and their families to settle in Canada under the guise of conditional opportunities, yet continues to deny them their just and genuine settlement and integration, as majority of the Filipino Canadian community continue to suffer the impacts of deskilling, family separation, systemic racism and economic marginalization.
“We strive to contribute to Canadian society while the concerted efforts of the neoliberal agenda prevent us from genuinely settling, integrating and fully participating in a place that is now also our home. Alongside our mothers who have been brought in under the LCP, we continue to be segregated to low-wage and casualized jobs. While newcomer families are trapped in a cycle of poverty, it is no surprise that we have some of the highest high school dropout rates in Canada’s major cities,” says Neil Castro, Chairperson of UKPC/FCYA’s National Council.
An estimated $25 billion is what the Canadian government is saving in healthcare costs due to the contribution of over 2 million unpaid caregivers, who often perform duties that would require the attention of healthcare professionals and support workers. Under the live-in caregiver program, healthcare professionals, especially nurses from the Philippines, are placed under strict conditions not to practice their profession or go back to school in order to complete their requirements. Often paid at a rate of less than minimum wage, live-in caregivers perform care work for all demographics in Canada, but also perform housework and additional duties outside the specifications of the program. The work of unpaid caregivers and live-in caregivers is an example of the cost cutting and privatized measures our government has taken to buttress our crippling healthcare system.
In addition, the all-around costs of immigration, including applications for work permits, landing fees, board and lodging, purchasing goods and contributing taxes, are being made at the expense of transnational working class communities, while Canada saves further healthcare dollars. “We cannot accept being cheap disposable commodities,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada. “We refuse to live under constant fear and threat of deportation while we contribute so much to Canadian society.”
“Our lives are more than just numbers,” contends Roderick Carreon, National Chairperson of SIKLAB Canada. “Our lives cannot be capped like quotas. We must demand genuine immigration programs and demand a stop to temporariness and migrant work programs as the only means for our community to come to Canada.” Members of the CPFC will continue to demand for the fulfillment of our lives as working class peoples by building the path towards our just and genuine settlement and integration.
Stop the deportation of live-in caregivers!
No to the expansion of the temporary foreign workers program!
Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Advance the struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration!
-30-
Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)
For more information:
Joy C. Sioson
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org