March 28, 2005

Filipino Nurses Support Group

Open letter to Judy Darcy, Secretary-Business Manager of Hospital Employees' Union

Dear Judy Darcy,

We are responding to your letter titled: "LPNs can pick up the torch during nursing shortage" published in the Vancouver Sun on March 25, 2005. It is important for unions to take part in the discussions and strategy proposals around the nursing shortage and for unions to be pro-active in building genuine union and worker solidarity.

As a union whose membership is composed largely of immigrants and workers of colour, we hope your union shall stand in genuine solidarity with Philippine-trained nurses, especially those working as domestic workers and caregivers in Canada, by supporting their upward mobility towards becoming registered nurses in Canada.

To provide you more of a context on the presence of Philippine-trained nurses in B.C. and other provinces doing domestic and 24-hour home support work, we shall explain our reality. The globalization of the economy and neo-liberal policies of international lending institutions like the International Monetary Fund/World Bank have worsened the conditions of poverty and unemployment in the Philippines forcing us to find work abroad.

The Philippine government has, in fact, institutionalized the out-migration of Filipino workers, the majority of whom are Filipino women, through its Labour Export Program. Filipino nurses are part of the thousands of Filipino workers that leave the Philippines everyday.

The Philippines is currently the number one source of nurses in the world. Canada, a major competitor in the globalized economy, exploits our high education and nursing skills by recruiting us to work as domestic workers and 24-hour home support workers under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) grants too few points for foreign-trained nurses wanting to enter as landed immigrants.

CIC leaves little option for Philippine-trained nurses but to enter Canada under the LCP. This immigration program, managed by CIC and Human Resource and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), force us to live and work in our employers' homes for a minimum of two years under precarious temporary work visas. The conditions created by the LCP perpetuate our exploitation and oppression where we face extreme human rights violations, poverty, deskilling, and stalled development.

Coupled with the LCP, we also face lengthy and costly barriers to the registered nursing accreditation process. For the last ten years, the Filipino Nurses Support Group (FNSG) has been educating, organizing, and advocating for our members and contacts numbering over 600. The majority of our members are Philippine-trained nurses who have come under the LCP.

Through our community-based initiatives like bi-weekly peer-led nursing review classes, English support classes, and counseling, we have supported over 160 members to become registered nurses in BC. While many of our members have been successful in overcoming the barriers to returning to the nursing profession, there are still a number of nurses who remain trapped under the LCP.

The BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) would be an effective mechanism to recognize the registered nurses under the LCP, but the BC PNP seems to be more active in recruiting nurses abroad rather than recognizing the qualified foreign-trained nurses already in BC.

We hope your union shall stand in genuine solidarity with Philippine-trained nurses, especially those working as domestic workers and caregivers in Canada, by supporting their upward mobility towards becoming registered nurses in Canada.

We thus urge your union to:
· Genuinely examine and critique the Live-in Caregiver Program
· Advocate for the early termination of the LCP contract of Philippine-trained and other foreign-trained nurses who are already registered nurses in Canada and ready to work as nurses
· Advocate for a more effective implementation of the BC Provincial Nominee Program that shall benefit Philippine-trained nurses who are already in BC
· Urge government to provide concrete support for community organizations, like FNSG, that have proven successful in implementing and sustaining programs
· Urge government to invest in comprehensive orientation and training programs in acute and specialty areas where foreign-trained nurses would benefit

We would be pleased to meet with you at the Kalayaan Centre to discuss further.

Please contact us at the number below. Sincerely, Leah Diana, RN on behalf of the Filipino Nurses Support Group