Caregivers, Filipino-Canadians Not Buying New Immigration Changes

November 20, 2014

New Conservative caregivers laws hurts Caregivers

Toronto -- Current and former Caregivers will be outside the Federal Minister’ Offices at 150 King West, on Saturday, November 22nd 2014 at 3:00pm to condemn the cap placed on permanent residency for Caregivers. Announced on October 31st, these new changes come in to effect on November 30th and limit permanent residency to just 2,750 Caregivers working with children each year.

WHAT: Caregivers Rally for Justice
WHEN: 3pm, November 22, 2014
WHERE: 150 King West, Federal Ministers Offices, where the announcement was made by Minister Chris Alexander on October 31st.
WHO: Current and formers Caregiver members of Caregivers Action Centre, Migrante Ontario and Caregiver Connections, Education and Support Organization (CCESO) as well as Filipino Canadians.
VISUALS: Caregivers and Filipino Canadians with banners and signs which read ‘Stop stealing permanent residency from Caregivers’; ‘New Conservative laws hurt Caregivers’.


Background

On October 31, 2014, Minister Chris Alexander announced the following changes to the Caregiver Program:

- Permanent residency was split into two streams - one for Childcare providers, and one for those Caregivers that work with patients with high medical needs.

- A cap of 2,750 was placed on how many Caregivers can apply for Permanent Residency under each stream. Details of what happens to Caregivers who are not included in the cap are not available. Likely, they will be forced in to temporary work, become undocumented and deported.

- The Caregiver Program has been a program with a guaranteed access to permanent residency. This change now regressively reverts it back to being a temporary program for the first time in 30 years.

- English language, and educational requirements were greatly increased, further limiting the ability of many Caregivers to live in Canada permanently.

- The Tories acceded to Caregiver demands to end the Live-In requirement, making living in employer’s homes voluntary. However, without parallel raise in wages many Caregivers will not be able to choose to live-out. Avenues also need to be made to allow Caregivers to live-out, after the beginning of their contract to get out of bad workplace conditions.

For more information contact:
Liza Draman
Organizer
Caregivers Action Centre
Phone: 647-447-9590

Syed Hussan
Coordinator
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Phone: 416-453-3632
Email: coordinator@migrantworkersalliance.org