SIKLAB-Canada
National Statement

National Day of Protest: Stop the Unjust Deportation of Filipino Live-in Caregivers!

January 13, 2006

As a national alliance of overseas Filipino workers in Canada, SIKLAB-Canada takes a stand during this national day of protest, to rally against the unjust deportation of live-in caregivers. We stand today, united across major cities in Canada, in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, to demand a moratorium on the deportation of Filipino domestic workers.

In the last two and a half decades, over 100,000 Filipinos in Canada have come through Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). We came as migrant workers working in the private sphere of the household for as low as $2/hour. We are part of the deepening poverty and continuing displacement brought about by the chronic neo-colonial crisis of Philippine society. With 10% of its people staying or working abroad, the Philippines has been described as one of the largest migrant nations in the world whose overseas workers annually remit around $13 billion US dollars to the Philippines – thus propping up an ailing economy.

In the last six years alone, 95% who came under the LCP were Filipino women thus, highlighting the need by Canada for cheap labour and the “forced” migration of Filipino women. The LCP sentences people, mainly women, to a lifetime of live-in domestic, cleaning, and other service sector work. We are hailed as “modern-day heroes”, but in fact, we are “modern-day slaves” working as live-in caregivers in Canada. The LCP steals our dignity and strips us of our previous experience and education.  Even after we finish 24 months of live-in domestic work and LCP contracts, we are trapped as a segregated pool of cheap labour.

As live-in caregivers, we are subject to arbitrary and unjust deportation for failure to complete the requirements of the LCP.  In the majority of cases, the deportations are due to the live-in caregiver’s inability to complete the required 24 months of live-in work within three years of entering Canada.  Canada does not take into account the oppressive working and living conditions of live-in caregivers. Instead, Canada penalizes live-in caregivers with its inhumane implementation of an exploitative and racist policy. Canada must be held accountable to the thousands of live-in caregivers who toil under the LCP.

Last year, CIC Minister Volpe promised to review the LCP in order to address the urgent issues arising from the program. To date, there has been no review, only lip service made by an administration adamantly refusing to take responsibility for its policies.

The LCP is an expression of the systematic commodification and exploitation of Filipino migrant labour by the Canada. Instead of implementing a universal childcare program accessible to all Canadian women and their families, Canada continues to recruit Filipino women to do live-in childcare and home support work in a private home.

Once served with a deportation order, we face difficulty accessing free repatriation services from the Philippine government offices abroad, despite the existence of an Emergency Repatriation Fund and $147 million U.S. in the general Overseas Workers Welfare Administration fund.  Many of us fund own airfare back to the Philippines or resort to begging from relatives and community organizations.

The deportation of Filipino live-in caregivers is a violation of our human rights as migrant workers by Canada. Canada prides itself in its human rights record but adamantly refuses to sign the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Despite this sorry record of violating the human rights of Filipino live-in caregivers and despite statements that Canada wishes to regularize undocumented immigrants, Canada continues to expand its temporary foreign workers program or movement.  With arbitrary changes in the process of applying for an “open visa,” the length of time spent working under the LCP is often extended for another eight months, even if an application for permanent residency was already made.  For two of the women of SIKLAB in Vancouver, CIC granted them temporary work permits as live-in caregivers, but outside the LCP and with no right to apply for permanent residency in the future.  In other words, these women face potential deportation from Canada if they lose their current employment.

The expansion of Canada’s recruitment and exploitation of temporary migrant labour should also be seen in the context of bilateral and multilateral agreements under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), Mode 4 (which seeks to enhance the temporary movement of workers around the world) and in the context of Canada’s need to compete for and maintain sources of cheap, docile labour.

In April 2005, SIKLAB launched this campaign calling on a moratorium on deportations of Filipino live-in caregivers. Since that time, the issue was raised to the attention of CIC Minister Joe Volpe through a formal written letter; but no reply was received addressing the community’s concerns.  Education and petition-gathering efforts took place in major cities across Canada. SIKLAB-Canada has now gathered over 1,000 signatures from the Filipino community and Canadian public that are being delivered to constituency office of CIC Minister Joe Volpe in Toronto today. We are demanding a response to our calls for justice for thousands of domestic workers.

The formation of SIKLAB-Canada in October 2005 is a landmark development in the history of educating, organizing, and mobilizing the Filipino community in Canada. SIKLAB-Canada will continue to be aware of the continuing challenges that Filipinos are facing in the midst of the intensifying crisis of global capitalism. SIKLAB-Canada is committed to upholding the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers in Canada and supporting the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation.

We honour those women who have been unjustly deported from Canada:
Leticia Cables
Melca Salvador
Acier Gomez
Eleanora Carag and her Canadian-born daughter
Clavel Narvasa
And the many other live-in caregivers who continue to fight to assert for their rights and welfare!

Stop the unjust deportations of Filipino live-in caregivers now!
Scrap the anti-woman and racist Live-in Caregiver Program!
Canada, stop violating the human rights of Filipino live-in caregivers!
Free services for Filipino live-in caregivers from the Philippine government!
Protect the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers!
No to the expansion of the temporary foreign workers program!
Canada, stop criminalizing Filipino live-in caregivers!
Scrap the racist and discriminatory $975 head tax!
    

Statement of:
SIKLAB-Toronto
SIKLAB-Vancouver
Pilipinong Migrante sa Canada (PMSC)-Ottawa
SIKLAB-Montreal