Canada immigration clampdown to include live in caregiver programme

Canada’s live-in caregiver programme may be next on the list for deletion as public servants warn it’s being used for family reunification.

Over the years, the live-in caregiver programme has helped many Canadian citizens struggling to cope with personal or family health and ageing problems, but the scheme is now under threat of being removed. Public service workers are claiming that it’s being misused as a way to achieve family reunification through the back door.

Although the government has promised it will leave the scheme in place for the present moment, its concerns stem from alerts received via its embassy in Manila. Fraudulent use of the programme, it seems, is now an ongoing problem and the absence of Filipina mothers from family units is disrupting the lives of children left behind.

The live-in caregiver visa is part of the Temporary Foreign Worker programme, itself subject to major changes revealed in last week’s government notification. Immigration lawyers are predicting that an announcement of the caregiver component’s cancellation will be made later in the year.

The removal of the visa is expected to cause consternation in Canada’s extensive Filipino community, and may affect the results of the federal election in 2015. Places on the programme are hotly contested as, after two years’ temporary work in Canada, live-in caregivers can bring over their dependents and become permanent residents, a unique benefit for those in low-skilled work.

According to Manuela Gruber Hersch, head of the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies, employers of caregivers will be badly hit by the programme’s cancellation. She agrees it’s open to abuse, but adds that this could be easily fixed by putting an independent agency in charge of placing caregivers within families.