MIGRANT WATCH

Filipino Caregivers: Target for Exploitation

“Filipinos thinking of working as caregivers should think twice,” warned an alliance of organizations of overseas Filipinos and their families.

BY BULATLAT.COM

”Package deal”

According to Migrante International, along with caring for the young or the elderly, caregivers in Canada also work like domestic helpers.  In addition to performing tasks of a private nurse, the caregiver also acts as the family cook, driver, dishwasher and gardener – or essentially, a domestic helper.

This is why, said Maita Santiago, Migrante International secretary-general, Filipino caregivers are called a “package deal.” The NGO held a rally during the International Employment Conference for Caregivers in Quezon City on August 20.

A member of the Manitoba Centre for Philippine Concerns in Canada agreed.

“I’m aware of both ends of the spectrum. Over here, caregiver work is seen with such promise and little discretion,” said Filipino-Canadian Darlyne Bautista at today’s rally.

“We just want people to know the truth,” she said. “We are here to expose the reality of the caregiver program.”

Exodus

Philippine Overseas Employment figures show the number of OFWs to Canada rose from about 2,000 in 1999 to 3,500 in 2002.  Most of them are caregivers.  In the same period, a total US$215 million in remittances was sent back by Filipinos in Canada.

According to a research by the People’s Media Center early this year, Canada is the only country with a program specifically targeting foreign caregivers. Started in 1992, the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) gives foreigners three years to complete the required two-year service as a caregiver, either in private nursing homes or in residences of rich Canadian citizens. It is only after this that they are allowed to apply for immigration in Canada and seek other jobs or profession.

The LCP however allows the employers to keep caregivers under 24-hour day household work, practically turning them into domestic helpers for middle and upper class Canadian families.

Effect of globalization

According to PMC, the high demand for caregivers and nurses abroad may be attributed partly to the rise of private home care as well as the job preference of the youth in developed countries. Most of them dislike the idea of training as nurses. These factors have led to shortages of nurses, forcing hospitals and other medical institutions to hire caregivers and nurses from abroad.  

This high demand for caregivers in developed countries such as Canada is exploited by labor recruitment agencies which charge exorbitant service fees.  They tie up with hospitals and recruit caregivers job-starved countries such as the Philippines.

“This partnership,” wrote Antonio Tujan, IBON research director, in an article in the Asia Pacific Research Network journal, “is a phenomenon of globalization, an internationalization of contractual hiring, exploiting even cheaper migrant labor.”

Tujan also wrote that the exodus of nurses and caregivers from the Philippines is a result of the preference of health insurance companies for cheaper home care than hospitalization. This is reportedly an offshoot of the global trend in the privatization of health services, as a result of globalization.

“This results in the increase in the deployment of nurses for home care through manning agencies or as caregivers where their situation is no better than that of domestic help,” he says. Bulatlat.com

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