Filipino Nurses Support Group
Press Release

One-stop shop for immigration services facilitates flawed system of foreign credentials

June 5, 2007

Vancouver, B.C. – The recent announcement by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration of the $32.2 million program to help improve foreign credential recognition processes has drawn criticism from a grassroots organization for Philippine-trained nurses in Canada to be wary of government pouring more public money into a fundamentally flawed system of immigration policies and nursing licensure regulations.

“While millions of tax payers’ dollars are siphoned into providing better information, path-finding, and referral services to prospective immigrants, no concrete changes are committed to stop the extensive de-skilling and legislated poverty of Filipino professionals migrating to Canada,” said Leah Diana of the Filipino Nurses Support Group (FNSG).

Diana refers to the growing numbers of nurses, doctors, teachers, and other professionals from the Philippines who suffer the effects of costly, lengthy and bureaucratic hurdles.  “Many Philippine-trained professionals become trapped in low-income jobs beyond their initial settlement and integration period which negatively impacts their families’ economic and social status,” explained Diana.

The thrust of Canadian immigration programs to “enhance Canada’s social and economic growth” is empty for nurses from the Philippines who do not earn enough immigration points to come to Canada in their professional field despite the desperate need for nurses across the country.  Instead, they toil in unwanted and low wage positions of live-in domestic or home support work, food service, retail, and warehouse jobs.

“The Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) remains the only viable option for Philippine-trained nurses to enter the country which recruits them as temporary, low-cost caregivers required to live in their employers’ homes to take care of seniors, people with disabilities, and children despite the abuse they endure,” said Diana.

With the Philippines being one of three countries in which the federal immigration department has begun a pilot project to give in-person orientation sessions on Canadian credential requirements and up-to-date labour market information, FNSG believes that government and foreign credentials policy makers need to provide more than these band-aid solutions.

FNSG sees beyond the model of “the lack of information” and the need to “help people navigate through the complex system of foreign credential recognition in Canada.”  The Filipino community’s solutions involve working to address immediate and long-term issues related to immigration, settlement and integration, labour conditions, low wages, de-skillling, accreditation of foreign credentials, and systemic racism.

While the recently announced Foreign Credentials Referral Office aims to help foreign-trained professionals become accredited, FNSG has conducted review classes and assisted over 200 nurses from the Philippines working under the LCP to obtain nurse accreditation devoid of any help from the government.

“Beyond providing a one-stop shop for information and foreign credential referral services, government and professional associations need to foster the full participation of immigrant communities at the grassroots level that includes efforts towards policy engagement and change,” concluded Diana.

For more information, contact:
Sheila Farrales, Filipino Nurses Support Group
phone: 604-215-1103
email: fnsg@kalayaancentre.net
or visit website:
www.kalayaancentre.net

For background resources on the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, visit website:
http://www.credentials.gc.ca/