Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:17:33.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Labour of Love to Decent Work: Protecting the Human Rights of Migrant Caregivers in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Sabaa A. Khan
Sabaa A. Khan
Affiliation:
Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, Université de Montréal, sabaa.a.khan@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines Canada's federal Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) from the perspective of international human-rights and labour norms pertaining to the protection of migrant workers. Showing that the current legal framework of the LCP restricts migrant caregivers from effectively exercising a range of human and labour rights, the author argues for the removal of the labour (im)migration program's unnecessary structural obstacles and proposes a reformulation of the LCP under the principles and guidelines of the International Labour Organization's Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, in order to transform this controversial labour policy into a decent work opportunity.

Résumé

Cet article explore la notion de protection des travailleuses et travailleurs migrants ainsi que d'autres aspects du développement durable se rapportant à la division internationale du travail dans le secteur canadien des soins domestiques. L'auteur examine Le Programme des aides familiaux résidants (PAFR) en se penchant sur la question du droit international des droits de la personne, des normes internationales du travail, de la protection des travailleurs migrants et des objectifs de développement durable propres à la réglementation canadienne d'immigration. Démontrant comment les bases légales du PAFR empêchent les travailleurs migrants de jouir de certains droits humains et de certains droits fondamentaux du travail, l'auteur revendique l'abolition des obstacles structuraux de ce programme de travail. Elle propose un ré-aménagement du PAFR à partir d'une approche favorisant le développement humain, où davantage d'emphase est mise sur l'élargissement des capacités et du potentiel socioéconomique des travailleurs migrants au sein du marché du travail canadien.

Keywords

aide familiale résidantemplois temporairestravail des migrantscitoyennetédroits de la personnelive-in caregivertemporary workmigrant labourcitizenshiphuman rights
Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , April 2009 , pp. 23 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 There is no global consensus on the legal definition of domestic work or to what extent it includes caregiving duties. Canada's foreign “domestic worker” policy was replaced with a “live-in caregiver” program in 1992. Section 2 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, S.O.R./2002-227, defines a live-in caregiver as “a person who resides in and provides child care, senior home support care or care of the disabled without supervision in the private household in Canada where the person being cared for resides.”

2 Blackett, Adelle, “Making Domestic Work Visible: The Case for Specific Regulation” (Labour Law and Labour Relations Programme Working Paper No. 2, ILO, Geneva, 1998)Google Scholar; Jureidini, Ray, “Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon” (International Migration Papers 48, ILO, Geneva, 2002)Google Scholar; Duffy, Mignon, “Doing the Dirty Work: Gender, Race, and Reproductive Labor in Historical Perspective,” Gender and Society 21 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Misra, Joya and Merz, Sabine N., “Neoliberalism, Globalization, and the International Division of Care,” in Wages of Empire: Women's Poverty, Globalization, and State Transformations, ed. Cabezas, Amalia, Reese, Ellen, and Waller, Marguerite (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press, 2007)Google Scholar; Lyon, Dawn, “The Organization of Care Work in Italy: Gender and Migrant Labour in the New Economy,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 13 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Huang, Shirlena, Yeoh, Brenda S.A., and Rahman, Noor Abdul, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers (London: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2005)Google Scholar; Santos, Maria Deanna P., Human Rights and Migrant Domestic Work: A Comparative Analysis of the Socio-legal Status of Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers in Canada and Hong Kong (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2005)Google Scholar. Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar, Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic Work (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Anderson, Bridget, Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour (London: Zed Books, 2000)Google Scholar.

3 See International Labour Organization [ILO], Resolution concerning the Conditions of Employment of Domestic Workers (International Labour Conference, 49th Session, Geneva, 1965)Google Scholar; ILO, “The Employment and Conditions of Domestic Workers in Private Households: An ILO Survey,” International Labour Review 102 (1970)Google Scholar; Blackett, “Making Domestic Work Visible”; ILO, A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour (International Labour Conference, 93rd Session, Geneva, 2005)Google Scholar.

4 ILO, Decent Work (Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 87th Session, Geneva, 1999), 3Google Scholar.

5 World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All (Geneva: ILO, 2004)Google Scholar.

6 Specific Groups and Individuals: Migrant Workers, Report prepared by Ms. Gabriela Rodriguez Pizzaro, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, submitted pursuant to resolution 1999/44 of the Commission on Human Rights, Addendum, Visit to Canada (UN Economic and Social Council Doc. E/CN.4/2001/83/Add. 1, 21 December 2000).

7 Stasiulis, Daiva K. and Bakan, Abigail B., “Regulation and Resistance: Strategies of Migrant Domestic Workers in Canada and Internationally,” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 6 (1997), 31–57CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

8 See Moors, Annelies, “Unskilled Labour: Canada's Live-In Caregiver Program,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 45 (2003), 386–94Google Scholar; Santos, Human Rights and Migrant Domestic Work; Bals, Myriam, Les Domestiques étrangères au Canada: esclaves de l'espoir (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1999)Google Scholar; Grandea, Nona, Uneven Gains: Filipina Domestic Workers in Canada (Ottawa: Philippines–Canada Human Resource Development Program, North–South Institute, 1996)Google Scholar; McKay, Deirdre, “Success Stories? Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers in Canada” in Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers, ed. Huang, Shirlena, Yeoh, Brenda S.A., and Rahman, Noor Abdul (London: Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2005)Google Scholar.

9 ILO, Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Non-binding Principles and Guidelines for a Rights-Based Approach to Labour Migration (Geneva: ILO, 2005)Google Scholar [MFLM].

10 ILO, Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in the Global Economy: Global Report under the Follow-Up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (International Labour Conference, 92nd Session, Geneva, 2004)Google Scholar.

11 Daenzer, Patricia M., “An Affair between Nations: International Relations and the Movement of Household Service Workers,” in Not One of the Family: Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada, ed. Bakan, Abigail B. and Stasiulis, Daiva (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Roberts, Barbara, “A Work of Empire: Canadian Reformers and British Female Immigration,” in A Not Unreasonable Claim: Women and Reform in Canada, 1880s–1920s, ed. Kealey, Linda (Toronto: Women's Press, 1979)Google ScholarPubMed.

12 Daenzer, “An Affair between Nations.”

13 Bals, Les Domestiques étrangères; Audrey, Macklin, “On the Inside Looking In: Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada,” in Maid in the Market: Women's Paid Domestic Labour, ed.Giles, Wenona and Arat-Koç, Sedef (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 1994)Google Scholar; Grandea, “Uneven Gains”; Bakan, Abigal and Stasiulis, Daiva, “Foreign Domestic Worker Policy in Canada and the Social Boundaries of Modern Citizenship,” Science and Society 58 (1994), 7–33Google Scholar.

14 Bals, , Les Domestiques étrangères, 30Google Scholar.

15 Department of Employment and Immigration, Domestic Workers on Employment Authorizations: A Report of the Task Force on Immigration Practices and Procedures (Ottawa: Office of the Minister of Employment and Immigration, 1981), Recommendation No. 5Google Scholar.

16 See Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, s. 2.

17 Stasiulis, Daiva K. and Bakan, Abigail B., Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, s. 113.

19 Langevin, Louise and Belleau, Marie-Josée, Trafficking in Women in Canada: A Critical Analysis of the Legal Framework Governing Immigrant Live-In Caregivers and Mail-Order Brides (Ottawa: Status of Women Canada, 2001), 57Google Scholar.

20 Levels of exclusion vary among provinces. For example, Prince Edward Island excludes live-in caregivers from minimum wage protection but entitles them to maternity leave; in New Brunswick, live-in caregivers are completely excluded from provincial labour protection. See Employment Standards Act, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, c.E-6.2, s. 2(3)a; Employment Standards Act, S.N.B. 1982, c. E-7.2.

21 Stasiulis, and Bakan, , Negotiating Citizenship, 92Google Scholar; Macklin, Audrey, “Foreign Domestic Workers: Surrogate Housewife or Mail-Order Servant?” McGill Law Journal 37 (1992), 681–760Google Scholar.

22 Oxman-Martinez, Jacqueline, Hanley, Jill, Lach, Lucyna, Khanlou, Nazilla, Weerasinghe, Swama, and Agnew, Vijay, “Intersection of Canadian Policy Parameters Affecting Women with Precarious Immigration Status: A Baseline for Understanding Barriers to Health,” Journal of Immigrant Health 7 (2005)Google ScholarPubMed.

23 Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, ss. 72(2)(a), 110–15.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid. s. 63.

26 House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Evidence, 39th Parl., 1st Sess. (April 19, 2007), 1550, http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=2848871&Language=E&Mode=l&Parl=39&Ses=l#T1550.

27 See Bals, Les Domestiques étrangères; Stasiulis and Bakan, Negotiating Citizenship.

28 Commission for Labour Cooperation, Foreign Worker's Guide to Labour and Employment Laws in Canada, http://www.naalc.org/migrant/english/pdf/mgcan_en.pdf.

29 Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Live-In Caregiver Program: How Are Contracts Enforced? http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/information/faq/work/caregiver-faq04.asp.

30 See International Organization for Migration, Seasonal Agricultural Workers Project, Guatemala–Canada (IOM Guatemala, 2008) http://www.oim.org.gt/Seasonal%20Agricultural%20Workers%20Project.pdf (accessed November 20, 2008).

31 Basok, Tanya, Tortillas and Tomatoes: Transmigrant Mexican Harvesters in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Preibisch, Kerry and Binford, Leigh, “Interrogating Racialized Global Labour Supply: An Exploration of the Racial/National Replacement of Foreign Agricultural Workers in Canada,” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 44 (2007), 5–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 The term “unskilled” is used here strictly in the context of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's refusal to recognize live-in caregiving as a skilled occupation; in no way does it reflect the actual qualifications or education backgrounds demanded of live-in caregivers.

33 Cohen, Rina, “Women of Colour in White Households: Coping Strategies of Live-In Domestic Workers,” Qualitative Sociology 14 (1991), 197–215CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Arat-Koç, Sedef, “In the Privacy of Our Own Home: Foreign Domestic Workers as Solution to the Crisis of the Domestic Sphere in Canada,” Studies in Political Economy 28 (1989), 46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Macklin, “On the Inside Looking In.”

36 Zaman, Habiba, Breaking the Iron Wall: Decommodification and Immigrant Women's Labour in Canada (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2006)Google Scholar.

37 ILO, Protecting the Most Vulnerable of Today's Workers: Report of the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Future ILO Activities in the Field of Migration (Geneva: ILO, 1997)Google Scholar; International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, “Modern-Day Slavery for Temporary Migrants,” Trade Union World 3/97 (November 1997)Google Scholar.

38 Employment Agency Business Licensing Regulation, Alta. Reg. 189/1999, ss. 2–4; Employment Standards Regulation, B.C. Reg. 396/1995.

39 Employment Standards Act, S.O. 2000, c. 41, s. 144(4).

40 Employment Standards Regulation, B.C., s. 13.

41 Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labour and Employment of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Government of British Columbia, Canada Concerning Co-operation in Human Resource Deployment and Development (January 29, 2008) art. 1(a); Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labour and Employment of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and Her Majesty the Queen in the Right of the Province of Saskatchewan as represented by the Minister Responsible for Immigration and the Minister of Advanced Education and Employment Concerning Cooperation in the Fields of Labour, Emplovment and Human Resource Development (December 18, 2006).

42 Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Departmental Performance Report 2004–2005.

43 Improving the Economic Security of Women: Time to Act (21st Report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women), 39th Parl., 1st Sess., June 2007), Recommendation No. 8.

44 Government Response to the Twenty-First Report of the Status of Women (House of Commons Committees, FEWO 39-2).

45 Stasiulis, and Bakan, , Negotiating Citizenship, 16Google Scholar.

46 Romero, Mary, Maid in the USA (New York: Routledge, 1992)Google Scholar; Clark-Lewis, Elizabeth, Living In, Living Out: African-American Domestics in Washington DC, 1910–1940 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 147Google Scholar; Bals, , Les Domestiques étrangères, 33Google Scholar.

47 ILO, Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers; Global Forum on Migration and Development, Report of the First Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, Belgium July 9–11, 2007 (Brussels: Bruylant, 2008)Google Scholar; Varennes, Fernand de, “Strangers in Foreign Lands: Diversity, Vulnerability and the Rights of Migrants” (UNESCO Discussion Paper, Geneva, 2003)Google Scholar; Martin, Philip L., Sustainable Migration Policies in a Globalizing World (Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, ILO, 2003)Google Scholar.

48 ILO, Stopping Forced Labour: Global Report under the Follow-Up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (International Labour Conference, 89th Session, Geneva, 2001)Google Scholar; Clark-Lewis, Living In, Living Out; Dill, Bonnie Thornton, Across the Boundaries of Race and Class: An Exploration of Work and Family among Black Female Domestic Servants (New York: Garland, 1994)Google Scholar.

49 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (III), U.N. Doc. A/810 (1948), 71 [UDHR].

50 Declaration Concerning the Aims and Purpose of the International Labour Organization (Declaration of Philadelphia), October 9, 1946, 15 U.N.T.S. 35, art. 1.

51 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, December 16, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 [ICESCR].

52 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, December 16, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 [ICCPR].

53 UDHR, art. 23(1); ICESCR, art. 6(1).

54 UDHR, art. 22; ICESCR, art. 9.

55 UDHR, art. 23(1); ICESCR, art. 7.

56 UDHR, art. 20(1); ICESCR, art. 8; ICCPR, art. 22.

57 UDHR, art. 29(2); ICESCR, arts. 2(2) and 2(3).

58 Cholewinski, Ryszard, Migrant Workers in International Human Rights Law: Their Protection in Countries of Employment (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 61Google Scholar.

59 International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, June 18, 1998, 37 I.L.M. 1233 [ILO Declaration]

60 Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87), Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).

61 ILO Constitution, June 28, 1919, 49 Stat. 2712, 225 Consol. T.S. 378, Preamble.

62 Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (ILO Convention No. 29), 39 U.N.T.S. 55 (1932), art. 2(1).

63 For further discussion on the notion of consent see Carens, Joseph H., “Live-In Domestics, Seasonal Workers, and Others Hard to Locate on the Map of Democracy,” Journal of Political Philosophy 16 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mantouvalou, Virginia, “Servitude and Forced Labour in the 21st Century: The Human Rights of Domestic Workers,” Industrial Law Journal 35 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 ILO; Stopping Forced Labour; ILO, Global Alliance Against Forced Labour.

65 ILO Migration for Employment Convention (No. 97), 120 U.N.T.S. 70 (1949).

66 ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention (No. 143), 1120 U.N.T.S. 324 (1975).

67 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, G.A. Res. 45/158, 45 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49A) at 262, U.N. Doc. A/45/49 (1990), Annex [ICMW]

68 ILO, Migrant Workers—General Survey: Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (International Labour Conference, 87th Session, Geneva, 1999), para. 107.

69 Cholewinski, , Migrant Workers, 94Google Scholar.

70 ILO Convention No. 143, Preamble.

71 ILO Convention No. 97, art. 6.

72 ILO Convention No. 143, art. 1.

73 ILO Convention No. 97, art. 11(2).

74 Cholewinski, , Migrant Workers, 102Google Scholar; see also Böhning, W.R., “The Protection of Migrant Workers and International Labour Standards,” Yearbook (International Institute of Humanitarian Law) 1986–1987 (1989), 251Google Scholar.

75 See UDHR, art. 23(1); ICESCR, art. 6.

76 Böhning, W.R., “The ILO and the New UN Convention on Migrant Workers: Past and Future,” International Migration Review 25 (1991), 698–709CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

77 See Bals, Les Domestiques étrangères.

78 Hasenau, Michael, “ILO Standards on Migrant Workers: The Fundamentals of the UN Convention,” International Migration Review 25 (1991), 687–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 ICMW, arts. 27, 52, 53.

80 See ICESCR, art. 12.

81 See ILO, Global Alliance Against Forced Labour; ILO, Stopping Forced Labour; Blackett, “Making Domestic Work Visible.”

82 United Nations, World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Women and International Migration (New York: United Nations), 2006Google Scholar. See also ILO, Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers.

83 See Satterthwaite, M.L., “Crossing Borders, Claiming Rights: Using Human Rights Law to Empower Women Migrant Workers” Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal 8 (2005), 28Google Scholar.

84 Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 58 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 38) at 366, U.N. Doc. A/58/38 (2003).

85 Valiani, Salimah, Analyse, solidarité, action: le point de vue des travailleurs et travailleuses sur la demande croissante de main-d'ceuvre migrante au Canada (Service des politiques socialcs et économiques, Congrès du travail du Canada, 2007)Google Scholar.

86 ILO, Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers.

87 See UKPC, Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance, and Kalayaan Resource and Training Center, Bridging the Gap: The Legal Needs of Filipino Youth (Vancouver: Kalayaan Resource and Training Center, 1999)Google Scholar; Philippine Women's Centre of British Columbia [PWCBC] and Filipino Nurses Support Group, Filipino Nurses Doing Domestic Work in Canada: A Stalled Development (Vancouver: PWCBC, 2001)Google Scholar; PWCBC, Trapped! Holding On to the Knife's Edge: Economic Violence against Filipino Migrant / Immigrant Women (Vancouver: PWCBC, 1997)Google Scholar; UKPC-Ontario, “Members of Filipino Community in Toronto Mourn the Death of Filipino Youth in Vancouver” (press release, January 29, 2008).

88 Piper, Nicola and Satterthwaite, Margaret, “Migrant Women,” in International Migration Law: Developing Paradigms and Key Challenges, ed. Cholewinski, Ryszard, Perruchoud, Richard, and MacDonald, Euan (The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2007)Google Scholar; see also Grugel, Jean and Piper, Nicola, Critical Perspectives on Global Governance: Rights and Regulation in Governing Regimes (London: Routledge, 2007), 35Google Scholar.

89 See note 10 above.

90 E.g., the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, the Global Commission on International Migration, the International Organization for Migration, the Berne Initiative, and the Geneva Migration Group. Many regional initiatives are listed in the MFLM's Annex II on best practices.

91 MFLM, Introduction.

92 Ibid., Guideline 4.5.

93 Ibid., Guidelines 9.7, 9.8, 9.12.

94 Ibid., Principle 1(a).

95 Ibid., Annex II.

96 Ibid.

97 Grugel, and Piper, , Critical Perspectives on Global Governance, 71Google Scholar.

98 MFLM, Guideline 12.6.

99 Canadian Nurses Association [CNA], Planning for the Future: Nursing Human Resource Projections (Ottawa: CNA, 2002), http://www.cna-nurses.ca/CNA/documents/pdf/publications/Planning_for_the_future_June_2002_e.pdf.Google Scholar See Dunsdon, Nicole, “Nursing Shortage Makes Colleges Get Creative in Training RNs,” The Globe & Mail (4 February 2009)Google Scholar, in which Rachel Bard, CEO of the CAN, confirms that despite an increase in the output of nursing programs since the 2002 CAN study was released, its predictions remain accurate. See also CAN, “CAN Sees Small Gains in RN Numbers, Will Release Report Containing Tested Solutions to Address the Continuing Shortage” (press release, December 1, 2008); CAN, “Canada' s Health System Faces Another Year of Nursing Student Graduate Shortfalls” (press release, June 18, 2008).

100 MFLM, Principle 1.

101 Ibid., Principle 11.

102 Ibid., Principle 12.