COVID-19 pandemic taking toll on migrant care workers in Canada, report says

The arrival of COVID-19 in Canada has turned the conditions of migrant care labour into virtual prisons, according to a report released Wednesday that details the toll borne by a work force segment made up mostly of women from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Kenya or Jamaica.

“The racism underpinning this denial of freedom is clear: even as employers went in and out, workers – primarily South-East Asian, as well as Caribbean, African and South Asian women – were treated as vectors of disease,” the report said.

The report was jointly prepared by four support organizations calling themselves the Landed Status Now Working Group of Migrant Rights Network.

The report is based on a survey of 201 migrant care workers, conducted over the past two months.

The report estimates that over the last six months those workers were owed an average of $6,552 in unpaid overtime.

The report explains that migrant care workers, who hope to gain permanent residency and be reunited with their families, are often in a vulnerable spot because restrictions on their 24-month work permits tie them to one employer only, putting them at risk of abuse.

The pandemic lockdown has now made working conditions even more arduous and claustrophobic because employers and their children are home, expecting more from their housekeepers and nannies, the report said.

A key recommendation of the report is to grant permanent residency to migrant care workers, since many have already been living and working in Canada for years despite their precarious status.

PR means that workers can work in any sector, including in health care, where workers are sorely needed,” it said.

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