Many care workers are stuck in a backlog, and the childcare permanent residency stream closed in just 17 days. Together, care workers have come up with this letter. Add your name to send it the Ministers.
Prime Minister Trudeau, Immigration Minister Fraser, and my Member of Parliament,
Care work is the important work done to take care of children, sick and the elderly in the home, often done by migrant workers. This care work is the backbone of Canada’s labour market and social support systems. Without care work, the economy does not work. Canada must create a national care strategy to ensure quality care for children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Decent work and landed status now for the workers providing that care work must be the foundation of Canada’s care economy.
Many care workers are paid low wages, work long hours and live in difficult conditions for years to have the chance to apply for permanent residency. We are tied to our employers and face exploitation as a result. Some employers are using the pandemic to overwork and underpay care workers, trap us inside their homes or force us to work while sick. Many care workers cannot find jobs on employer specific work permits.
Many care workers applied for permanent residency but we have been waiting for years to get a decision on our applications, or even an acknowledgement that we applied. We are separated from our families and must remain tied to employers. Care workers are unable to get PR because of language tests and educational accreditation requirements that are expensive, time consuming, and unnecessary. Migrant care workers live and work here already, requiring further proof of education or language skills is discriminatory. The existing pathway has an arbitrary cap of 2,750 applications which was reached in just 17 days in 2022. Now childcare workers must wait till 2023 to apply.
We call on you to act quickly to ensure fairness for all care workers. This means:
- Landed status now for all care workers
- Clear the backlog: No more waiting for PR processing
- No more quotas or caps
- No more tied work permits
- No English language requirements
- No education accreditation requirement
- Reunite families
Granting landed status to care workers should be accompanied by granting full and permanent immigration status to all migrant and undocumented people in Canada now, and permanent resident status on arrival to all migrants in the future. Finally, we call on Canada to sign the ILO Convention C189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.
Landed Status Now: Care Workers Organize! Members: Alberta Careworkers Association (Edmonton), Caregivers Action Centre (Toronto), CCESO – Careworker Connections and Educational Support Organization (Toronto), Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights (Vancouver), Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (Ontario), Migrante Alberta, Migrante Canada, Migrante Ottawa, PINAY Quebec (Montreal). Endorsed by: Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers (ADDPD-ARHW).
Watch this video of care workers speaking up and read our latest reports.