Regularization and Permanent Resident Status for Care Workers in Canada Urgently Needed
Toronto, Vancouver, June 3, 2024 — Migrant Care Workers across Canada welcome changes to the caregiver program announced today that meets key demands from migrant care workers including:
- Migrant caregivers will get permanent resident (PR) status on arrival – a critical demand of the migrant workers movement since 1979. Having PR will mean care workers can better protect themselves from abuse and exploitation. This change can serve as a template for permanent resident status on arrival for all temporary foreign workers.
- Education requirements will be lowered from Canadian equivalency of 1 year post-secondary education in current pilots to high school equivalency.
- Attain a level 4 based on the Canadian Language Benchmarks, down from Level 5 in the current pilots.
Minister Miller announced that the reduced requirements for education and language requirements will be applied to care workers currently in Canada. This is critical as thousands of care workers have been left in limbo due to these barriers under the old program. But many care workers are still left out.
Today’s announcement leaves out undocumented migrant care workers in Canada. All migrant caregivers in Canada who are undocumented due to failures of the programs must be regularized.
See Migrant Rights Network submissions and care worker priorities
Questions remain about the new program such as criteria for job offers and the expansion of home care work to organizations. Care workers must be part of planning how the new pilot program will be finalized and launched.
Teresa Gutierrez is a migrant caregiver who has been in Canada for six years, but was denied permanent residency because of unfair education requirements, which have been reduced today. She met with Minister Marc Miller at a roundtable today and said, “Today you listened to caregivers like us who fought for changes to language and education requirements – and you’ve improved the program. But it’s too late for me. Soon I will be undocumented. So I am here to remind you. You promised regularization this Spring. It’s June, and time is running out. I am reminding you to hear us, and give us regularization. I worked here in Canada for almost 6 years to take care of children. I left behind my own 5 kids just to let them have a better future. I know you’re a parent too. Do you know how hard it is for us parents to see our children growing without us? I am not the only one. There are hundreds of thousands of us in the same situation. And you have the power to fix this. We are demanding a regularization that will make a way to be reunited with my family, to have a better job, and have the same rights as everybody else. Thousands across the country are watching to see what you will do. Will you deliver on your promise? Will you fight for and defend regularization?”
Jhoey Dulaca of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, agrees, saying “We are welcoming and celebrating the news of permanent resident status on arrival as well as the lowering of educational and language requirements. Many thousands of caregivers have faced abuse and exploitation, and have been in limbo or have become undocumented over the last five years – Canada must now move urgently to implement a regularization program for undocumented caregivers to ensure no one is left behind.”
Cenen Bagon, from Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers & Caregivers Rights, adds “Resilient foreign domestic workers, caregivers, and their long-time advocates have fought hard for recognition in Canada: if they are good enough to work, they are good enough to stay with permanent resident status upon arrival. Although the work is not over, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and IRCC Minister Marc Miller have come one step closer to hearing these decades-long calls for justice through these new pilots. We need regularization right now to ensure everyone is protected.”
Today’s changes are a long-time coming. In 2019, the federal government created a 5 year pilot, keeping most of the policy failures of the program created by the previous Conservative government in 2014, including increased education and language requirements. As a result, thousands of caregivers have been unable to gain permanent residency, either moving from one employer to another on tied work permits facing abuse, or becoming undocumented.
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For interviews with care workers
- TORONTO: Jhoey Dulaca, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change – 416-897-4388
- VANCOUVER: Cenen Bagon, Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights – 604-805-0384
- For background information and to receive updated press release after the full announcement today: info@migrantrights.ca
Further Background
- Migrant Rights Network & Supporters Open Letter: Migrant healthcare and childcare workers deserve rights and permanent resident status (April 10, 2024)
- Migrant Workers Alliance for Change: Trudeau urged to uphold gender justice and ensure permanent resident status for all as thousands of migrant women face exclusion and deportation (March 8, 2024)
- Toronto Star: She’s been in Canada for a decade, but still can’t get permanent residence. Is Canada failing caregivers like her (March 8, 2024)
Migrant Rights Network is Canada’s largest migrant-led coalition of 40 organizations in 8 provinces which are made up of tens of thousands of migrant members including farmworkers, domestic workers, current and former international students, refugees and undocumented people. The Landed Status Now Working Group is composed of all the migrant care worker-led organizations in Canada including Caregiver Connections Education and Support Organization, Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights, Migrante Canada and Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.