Destination Canada(?): Gender, race and changing policies for recruiting migrant domestic workers

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that nearly 44 million persons over age 14 in 2010 are women domestic workers, accounting for 7.5 percent of female employees worldwide and representing eight out of ten of all domestic workers (ILO 2011). Many female domestics are international migrants, literally hidden in the households of destination countries, often lacking legal, civic and political rights given to their employers (Anderson 2006; Heimschoff and Schwenken 2001) and frequently without rights to residency status. Substantial concern exists over substantial human rights violations, the often ignored inter-country agreements designed to protect domestics, and the absence of regulations to ensure decent work conditions (but see: ILO Convention NO. 189 and Recommendation No. 201, June 2011).

            Amid these global concerns, Canada is often singled out as an exception, if only because working conditions and the extension of rights in other countries are so much worse (Bakan and Stasiulis 1997). But Canada’s history of domestic worker recruitment and related migration policies have been highly gendered and racialized.  Starting in 2010, new major state initiatives appeared.  By overviewing current Canadian policies related to the recruitment of migrant women to work in private households, three questions are answered. First, how and why did the current policies on live-in caregivers emerge? Second, who is recruited under Canada’s caregiver policies? Third, what are the problems associated with the program and what have been the recent policy responses targeted at those women who are migrating to Canada as caregivers? Six problematic areas, with corresponding policy needs or actions, are highlighted: unscrupulous recruitment agencies; unscrupulous employers; time spent in carework prior to receiving permanent resident status; required medical examinations; family stresses caused by prolonged separation, and the growing educational levels of migrant caregivers accompanied by the increasing risk of downward mobility upon gaining permanent residence status.