Nearly seven years after coming to Canada to be a live-in caregiver for seniors in the Greater Toronto Area, Gretchen Mayor is considering moving to the United States, where she has relatives.
“I’m questioning if I still want to stay in Canada,” said Mayor, 39, who has been waiting for years to obtain her permanent residency.
In 2021, while working at her third job as a caregiver in Canada, she applied for permanent residency. She included proof that she had the 12 months of required work experience in Canada.
In August 2023, she was told her application was on hold. She received a three-year work permit that allows her to work as a caregiver for any employer.
Mayor was a health-care provider in Israel and Italy before moving to Canada. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing in her home country of the Philippines, and moved to Canada from Italy, in part, to be a nurse. She also thought it would be easier to obtain Canadian citizenship than Italian citizenship.
“I thought here in Canada it would be easier,” she said. “But it is not. It is harder.”
This might be about to change. On Monday, Marc Miller, the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, announced the creation of two new pilot programs that will give eligible international caregivers permanent residency when they arrive in Canada.
The programs will replace two existing pilot programs, the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and the Home Support Worker Pilot. These programs launched in 2019 and are set to expire this month.
The department of immigration, refugees and citizenship told Canadian Affairs that one of the new programs will focus on in-home care for children. The other is for individuals who require in-home care, such as people who are semi-independent or are recovering from illness or injury.
Ottawa intends for the new programs to become permanent, a press release says. It plans to admit more than 15,000 caregivers as permanent residents between 2024 and 2026.
More caregivers needed
The government’s announcement is receiving mixed reviews.
“I’m glad that they’re doing that now,” Mayor said about the new program. “But before [giving permanent residency to new international caregivers], they should attend to the issues in the previous [caregivers].”
“We really endorsed this change,” said James Janeiro, director of policy and government relations at the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, a research and advocacy organization. “These [immigration] programs have needed reform for a long time.”
With an aging population, Canada desperately needs more caregivers, he says.
“We want these people to come to Canada and stay in Canada, and the least we can do is make it easier to do that.”
The new programs have more flexible language and education requirements, says Mandeep Chaudhery, an immigration lawyer and associate at Nanda & Associate Lawyers in Mississauga, Ont.
The new pilot program lowers the required language proficiency from a Level 5 in English or French to a Level 4. And it requires a high-school diploma, rather than the equivalent of one year of post-secondary education in Canada.
Chaudhery would like to know if caregivers like Mayor, who are already in Canada, will qualify. “I think this is the right step,” he said of the new programs. “But it is too early to determine what is going to happen to people who are in Canada.”
In its statement to Canadian Affairs, the department of immigration, refugees and citizenship said caregivers already working in Canada will have access to these programs.
To be eligible for the new programs, individuals must have an offer for a full-time job. This worries some advocates, who note that many caregivers work multiple part-time jobs.
“Our [home-care] industries in Canada have a tremendous number of part-time positions,” said Barb MacLean, executive director of Family Caregivers of British Columbia.
There needs to be more full-time home-care jobs, she says. And there needs to be more clarity about whether people with multiple part-time caregiving jobs will be eligible for permanent residency under these new programs.
“A full-time job offer is an important tool in determining labour market attachment to the homecare sector in Canada,” the department of immigration, refugees, and citizenship said in its statement. “Specific details on program eligibility will be made publicly available in the near future.”
‘Rife for abuse’
Advocates hope that giving caregivers permanent residency will allow them to have more stable lives in Canada.
Many caregivers report financial stress, difficulties at work or poor mental health, a recent study from the Canadian Center for Caregiving Excellence found.
Caregivers on temporary work visas are particularly vulnerable, says Janeiro.
“[W]ithout immigration status, their whole existence in the country is tied to their employer, which creates conditions rife for abuse and mismanagement,” he said.
Permanent residency status “means that the individual care provider has options when they get here, and that they don’t have to be subject to the whims of any one particular employer.”
Mayor knows the uncertainty well.
In 2017, she came to Canada on a work visa, sponsored by her employer to care for him and his son. She was a live-in caregiver, meaning she lived at their residence.
Within 11 months of her arrival, both her employer and his son had died. She was suddenly without a home or a job — and a job is required to remain on a work visa.
“Being alone here, without a family, without a friend I knew in this country, it was hard,” she said, describing the time between her first and second job.
“I was so emotional and feeling depressed because I not just lost a client, but two clients at a time in a year.” She says her clients were like her family because she lived with them.
She finally found a job caring for an elderly woman and worked for her for almost nine months while waiting for a new work permit. It arrived days after the woman died. Without a job, her new work permit was invalid, Mayor says.
She has cared for a senior man in his home since January 2020.
Mayor tries to stay hopeful. Her birthday was earlier this month — permanent residency would be the greatest gift.
“I just wish tomorrow I will get my PR,” she said. “I will be the happiest person.”
