Transitional Pathway from a Temporary Migrant Worker to a Permanent Resident: Narratives of Filipina Live-in Caregivers in Canada

With the rapid growth of the Tagalog (Filipino) speaking population, recent demographic change in Canada has been directly affected by the pattern of global female migration and the subsequent arrival of these women’s family members. In particular, a specific foreign temporary worker program, known as the Live-In Caregiver Program or LCP, explains the current population growth of this visible minority. More than 80 percent of the migrant workers registered under the LCP are females from the Philippines. Furthermore, the LCP grants these female migrant workers the opportunity to apply for permanent residency and to bring their families to Canada after fulfilling a 24 months live-in working requirement. The LCP is the only temporary foreign worker program that has this legal pathway toward permanent residency in Canada.

This study aims to understand the social constraints on female migrant workers through examining everyday experience of Filipina live-in caregivers in Canada. The paper particularly focuses on the transitional legal pathway from temporary to permanent residency. The study of the transitional pathway of migrant workers uncovers the social process of inclusion and exclusion of migrant workers and their family members by states. Furthermore, this social process is highly gendered and racialized experience because vast majority of the applicants under the LCP are females from the Philippines.