Letter to the Editor
Philippine Women Centre of British Columbia
Re: “Underground economy bolstered by illegals”, Vancouver Sun, 30 May 2005

Exploitation of migrants should not be the solution

As a member of a community whose presence in Canada is a product of racist immigration policies, I find it unacceptable that the federal government is considering creating policies that specialize in exploiting migrant labour to solve the “problem of illegals” and save the Canadian economy.

To escape chronic economic crisis, my parents came to Canada in the 1970s as part of a wave of immigrants from the Philippines that helped to fill Canada’s need for cheap yet highly-educated labourers who could work in the country’s expanding service-sector economy. Now, Filipinos are the fourth largest visible minority group in Canada, numbering around 500,000. However, instead of arriving in Canada as landed immigrants, Filipinos are now entering on temporary visas.

Currently, 95% of Canada's foreign domestic workers are women from the Philippines. They enter Canada under the controversial Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) to live and work in the homes of middle- and upper-class Canadian families. They perform this work on temporary visas and their immigration status is tied to their employer. Only when they finish 24 months of live-in work within a strict 3-year period, can they apply for permanent resident status and even think about sponsoring their families.

In fact, a disturbing number of women cannot even finish the 24 months live-in requirement because of the highly exploitative character of the LCP that leaves them extremely vulnerable in their employers’ homes. In a callous response to this problem, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has been simply deporting scores of women – despite their contributions to the Canadian economy.

Therefore, instead of expanding temporary visas to bring in migrant labourers to fill undesirable jobs for Canadians, Canada should be learning the necessary lessons from the Filipino community’s negative experiences with such policies that are designed to exploit migrant labour.

May Farrales
Philippine Women Centre of British Columbia
451 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC, V6A 1G7
604-215-1103
pwc@kalayaancentre.net
www.kalayaancentre.net