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Caregiver Immigration: Pilot Projects and Job Vacancies

caregiver immigration: Groups that represent and work with migrant workers say they welcome many of the announced changes, but questions remain about whether restrictive requirements to achieve permanent residency will remain, according to CTV. The program allowing temporary foreign workers is meant to help employers fill job vacancies when Canadians are not available. Last month, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen announced two new five-year pilot projects on caregiver immigration, which have been billed as a way to allow caregivers to come to Canada with their families and offering them greater opportunity to become permanent residents. The government is supposed to make sure employers use the program to respond only to real labour shortages, but concerns have been raised repeatedly over the years about migrant workers' being tied to employers who have abused them by making them work long hours, cutting their paycheques with arbitrary fees and offering poor living conditions. Kara Manso, the co-ordinator of the Caregivers Action Centre in Toronto, says her office has been flooded with queries from foreign workers looking for more details about whether they will qualify for these new programs. Workers who care for children or frail people can be vulnerable because they labour mainly in private homes, though they aren't the only ones affected. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.