OTTAWA—The federal government has announced two new pathways that would give caregivers from abroad permanent residence upon arrival in Canada, a step that advocates and the Liberals say has been decades in the making.
“Caregivers have a long legacy here in Canada as they’re instrumental in helping families take care of loved ones,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Monday during a news conference in Toronto. “They help us raise our kids so that we as parents can go to work. When we struggle to find necessary care for our seniors, they’re here to support us.
“I believe these changes will provide families with the services they need and continue to advance protections for home care workers. This is something that’s long overdue, and this is one of our ways to tell home care workers that we see you and we’ve heard you.”
The new streams are intended to replace two existing programs that are set to wind down June 17: the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and the Home Support Worker Pilot.
The five-year pilots first launched in 2019 and were aimed at bringing foreign caregivers into the country to care for children, seniors and people with disabilities.
The new pilots, which the government says are a move toward establishing a permanent caregiver program in Canada, address some long-held concerns that critics of the country’s approach to foreign caregivers have spent years highlighting.
“People have been working for decades on the demand to ensure that migrant workers arrive with permanent resident status to Canada,” said Amanda Aziz, an immigration and refugee lawyer with the Migrant Worker Centre in Vancouver.
“That is for the most part because caregivers and care workers are faced with such abuse and exploitation in the context of their employment.”
Previously, applicants to the existing programs needed 12 months of Canadian work experience to qualify for permanent residence, something Aziz said forced some caregivers to stay trapped in unsafe working conditions.
Miller also announced other highly anticipated changes to language and education requirements to qualify for the new pilots, which are set to launch sometime between this fall and early 2025.
Where applicants previously needed to demonstrate a language proficiency of level 5 in either English or French, that requirement has now been dropped to level 4.
Education requirements have also been lowered: caregivers previously needed to have the equivalent of at least one year of post-secondary education or a foreign educational credential equivalent. Under the incoming pilots, the equivalent of a Canadian high school diploma will suffice, along with “recent and relevant” work experience.
An offer for a full-time home care job is also required.
Through the streams, caregivers will also be able to work for organizations that offer part-time care for people who are recovering from injury or illness and those who are not fully independent.
New Democrat MP and immigration critic Jenny Kwan told the Star the changes — which she said she has pushed Ottawa to adopt — will also stop caregivers from being separated from their families by opening up more ways for them to bring relatives to Canada.
“I’ve been advocating for this for over 30 years now, and so today’s announcement that they will finally respect and honour caregivers and value their work … is extremely welcome,” Kwan said.
The Liberals did not address several of Kwan’s other demands, such as imposing a six-month limit on processing applications because of backlogs in existing programs.
“One of the things we do not want to see is for the government to make a new announcement, a new program, and all the people in the previous stream (are) just forgotten,” Kwan said. “That cannot happen.”
Miller said that in 2023, Canada admitted more than 3,000 caregivers and their families under the current pilots and that this year, 2,000 more became permanent residents.
“We still do have a backlog under the pilots,” he said. “There’s an issue of fairness in there.
“Today, we’re pointing out that there will have to be a look at some of the rules currently in place, particularly the language rules that are putting people up against the wall of permanent residency, because they can’t pass their language level 5. So there’s a fairness aspect that my team needs to attack.”
It is expected the new streams will be capped by a maximum number of applicants per year, though Miller’s office was not able to provide specific numbers. The existing programs were capped at 2,750 applicants annually apiece.
“We’re always concerned when caps are introduced with these programs,” Aziz said.
“There’s obviously a need for workers in Canada.”
With files from Nicholas Keung