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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, [email protected]
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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

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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.”

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

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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.

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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.