Reducing Vulnerability to Abuse & Exploitation through Landed Status on Arrival for Migrant Caregivers

This submission was prepared by Rupaleem Bhuyan and Lorraine Valmadrid on behalf of the Migrant Mothers Project and community partners. On March, 2018 members of the Migrant Mothers Project Advisory with partnering individuals and community organizations took part in a consultation with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. The recommendations included in this submission were informed by the collective input during this consultation and by research conducted by the Migrant Mothers Project through the Caregivers’ Journeys Study.This submission is informed by research and community consultations conducted through the Caregivers’ Journeys study led by the Migrant Mothers Project at the University of Toronto. The Migrant Mothers Project is a university-community collaboration that involves a network of migrant caregivers, community leaders who have several decades experience supporting migrant caregivers, settlement service providers, and university-based academics who have expertise on immigration settlement and policy. Caregivers’ Journeys (2015-2018) is a participatory action research study that explores how changes in the Caregiver Programs have impacted migrant caregivers access to permanent residence and working conditions that contribute to vulnerability for employer abuse and exploitation. Since 2015, we have held consultations with migrant caregivers, community leaders, and service providers in Ontario and Alberta, to understand the impacts of policy changes introduced to the Live-in-Caregiver Program in 2014 along with the creation of the newer Caregiver Program. Using a peer-research model with trained caregivers, we conducted one-on-one interviews and focus group interviews with 33 migrant caregivers in Toronto and Calgary who were working in one of Canada’s caregiver programs, on a closed or open work permit, to understand their working conditions in the program and access to permanent residence