The Filipina Connection: the Face of Exploitation in Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program

The Filipina Connection: the Face of Exploitation in Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program

In this paper we explore why the primary pool of employees in Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) are temporary migrant workers, particularly Filipinas, as well as how the Canadian government and its related institutions justify discrepancies in the rights and protections between Canadian workers and those who come legally under Canada’s various migrant worker schemes. In this context specific attention is paid to live-in caregivers or those women who come under the domestic worker scheme. The analysis of the Canadian Live-in Caregiver Program will highlight the dominant ideologies underlying and motivating the federal government’s justification for: (a) the continuation of the program despite great external resistance; (b) the subordinate status of live-in caregivers that derives from their position as “non-citizens;” (c) the subordinate position domestic workers experience as working class women of colour; and (d) the reasoning behind a reliance on female temporary migrant workers of a specific demographic to care for Canadian dependents. To frame the entire discussion we ask (rhetorically) how it is possible for a country such as Canada that prides itself on its positive human rights and worker rights reputation, to defend a program such as the LCP that goes against the much-celebrated image of ‘Canada the good.’