HEADLINES
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY February 16 - 28, 2019
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Canada launches 2 new 5-year caregiver
immigration pilot programs
Caregivers will soon have access
to 2 new 5-year caregiver immigration
pilots that will replace expiring and
ineffective pilot programs. The new
pilots will allow caregivers to come
to Canada together with their family
and provide a pathway to permanent
residence.
Caregivers will also soon have
greater flexibility to change jobs
quickly, and barriers that prevent
family members from accompanying
caregivers to Canada will be removed,
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Minister Ahmed Hussen announced
on February 23.
“Caregivers provide care to
families in Canada that need it, and
it’s time for Canada to care for them
in return. We are providing them with
both the opportunity to bring their
family members here and access
permanent residency to demonstrate
our commitment,” Hussen said.
Under the new pilots, applicants
will be assessed for permanent
residence criteria before they begin
working in Canada. Once the
caregiver has their work permit and
2 years of work experience, they will
have access to a direct pathway to
become a permanent resident.
These pilot programs will replace
the Caring for Children and Caring for
People with High Medical Needs pilots
and include:
Occupation-specific
work
permits for caregivers, providing the
ability to change jobs quickly when
necessary.
Open work permits for spouses/
common-law partners and study
permits for dependent children,
to allow the caregiver’s family to
accompany them to Canada.
In addition, the Minister also
launched the Interim Pathway for
Caregivers, which will be open from
March 4, 2019, until June 4, 2019.
This interim program is being
launched after hearing directly from
caregivers and interested parties that
the previous changes made in 2014
were not well understood. Many
caregivers began working for families
in Canada, only to find out later
that they were not going to qualify
for permanent residence under an
existing program.
To address this issue, the Interim
Pathway for Caregivers will provide
those caregivers an opportunity to stay
in Canada permanently. The interim
program will have modified
criteria compared to the
current pilot programs
and offer a pathway to
permanent residence for
caregivers who, in good
faith, have come to Canada
and are providing care to
Canadians, without a clear
pathway to permanent
residence.
The
Government
of Canada continues to
be committed to family
reunification and eliminating backlogs
across all immigration streams. In
2017, the Government committed
to eliminating 80% of the caregiver
backlog and reducing the processing
time from its peak of more than 60
months. To date, the Government
has reduced 94% of the backlog and
reduced the processing time to 12
months.
In October 2017, there were
about 9,000 cases, representing
24,000 caregivers and their family
members, in the Live-in Caregiver
Program (LCP) backlog. Today, there
are now only 495 cases left to be
processed, representing 2,655 people
in all, a reduction of 94 percent.
The processing time for new
applications from those who were
grandfathered into the LCP is 12
months instead of the peak of 60
months previously.
Applications under the Caring
for Children and Caring for People with
High Medical Needs pilots continue to
be processed in 6 months or less.
Both the Home Child Care
Provider Pilot and the Home Support
Worker Pilot will launch later this
year and have a maximum of 2,750
principal applicants each, for a total
of 5,500 principal applicants, per
year. Spouses/common-law partners
and dependent children will not count
against the limit.
Migrant Caregivers win major victory but permanent
resident status on arrival for migrant workers still needed
Newly announced pilot Care-
giver Program, and Interim Program
important steps in the right direction,
and a direct response to Caregiver
organizing.
CANADA - Migrant Care Worker
organizations and allies from across
Canada (scroll below for list of organi-
zations) are welcoming the newly an-
nounced Caregiver Program which is
a direct response to the Landed Sta-
tus Now (www.LandedStatusNow.ca)
campaign and decades of organizing
before that, but questions remain on
details, and the temporariness of the
program continues to allow for mi-
grant Care Worker exploitation. Mi-
grant Care Workers remain united in
calling for permanent resident status
on arrival for all migrant workers.
Care Worker Wins!
In the new pilot program
- Sector-specific work permits
for Care Workers allowing workers
greater ability to leave bad jobs;
- The ability of migrant Care
Workers to bring their spouses and
children with them upon arrival;
In the interim program
- The removal of post-second-
ary educational requirements;
-The ability for workers to apply
after 12 months of service (instead of
24 months);
- The ability of workers to count
work experience in either of the two
streams - Childcare or High Medical
Needs; and
- Expedited processing
Questions remain about recent
announcement, including about:
- Details of the eligibility crite-
ria of the new pilot program;
- Processing mechanisms of
the pilot program particularly with
the bulk of processing taking place
in sending countries and 5,500 per
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
annum applications cap in place;
- Interaction between the new
sectoral work permits and Labour
Market Impact Assessment process
which is generally employer specific;
and
- Dates when the new pilot pro-
gram will go into effect.
Care Worker organizations will
be responding to further information
as it becomes available.
Temporary program continues
to allow for worker exploitation
- The program
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