The missing link: Gender, immigration policy and the Live-in Caregiver Program in Canada

Temporary labour migration is on the rise in the developed world. In May 2009, Canada's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration issued a report on the state of temporary and undocumented foreign workers in Canada, making a series of recommendations to ensure that labour needs can be met through temporary foreign workers and that those workers are able to successfully integrate into Canadian society. The report highlights one Canadian immigration program, the Live-in Caregivers Program, which offers migrant workers the opportunity to apply for permanent residency after working 24 months as a live-in child or elder care provider. The authors argue that the report errs in holding up the Live-in Caregivers Program as a model for other temporary foreign worker programs. Although the path to permanent residency is an important provision of the Live-in Caregivers Program, a gendered analysis of the program shows that the women who come to Canada as caregivers continue to face vulnerability and exploitation because of key structures of the program, most importantly the live-in requirement. Until policy reform accounts for the results of such a gendered analysis, the Live-in Caregivers Program does not ensure that caregivers will be able to integrate successfully into Canadian society.