The federal government announced steps Saturday to better safeguard foreign caregivers from abuse and exploitation, but opposition critics said the changes Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is proposing won’t provide full protection.

The revised regulations stem from months of consultations with caregiver groups, and Kenney expressed hope they will allow a better life for people who come to Canada to become nannies.

“To ensure they’re not subject to abusive situations, to ensure they’re not exploited by unscrupulous consultants and to ensure they have a fair, clear pathway to permanent residency,” Kenney told a news conference.

Among the changes Kenney is planning to the Live-in Caregiver Program is elimination of the requirement for caregivers to undergo a second medical exam.

The measure was proposed by Juana Tejada, a Toronto nanny who developed cancer while working as a caregiver and was initially denied permanent resident status when she failed her second medical examination.

The changes would also give nannies up to four years to complete a total of two years’ work needed to apply for landed-immigrant status. Currently the limit is three years.

The government hopes the change will prevent events like pregnancies or loss of employment from stopping live-in caregivers from meeting government requirements.

Those wanting to hire a nanny from overseas would have to pick up the cost of bringing them to Canada and provide medical coverage until the nannies are eligible for provincial health plans. They would also have to pay any fees to recruiters, Kenney said.

“No longer will caregivers be paying people to get the jobs to work in Canada,” Kenney said.

The government is also going to require caregivers’ employers to clearly outline job duties, hours of work, overtime and holidays, sick leave, and termination and resignation terms.

Employers who provide significantly different wages, working conditions or occupations than they promised may be blacklisted.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the changes before the final version takes effect sometime next year. (According to CTV News)

                          

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Parents’ expectations of care givers vary widely. Some expect the world; others are more realistic. Below are some of parents’ responses concerning expectations:

• “I want my nanny to be a substitute mother for my children.”
• “I want her to be half housekeeper, half nanny.”
• “She should be more than an employee. I want her to be part of the family.”
• “I just want  someone who’ll love and take care of my children.”
• “We want someone who’s professional, intelligent, and warm.”

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Here are some of care giver’s responses:

• “I want to be part of the family.”
• “This is just a job.”
• “I wish to had an employer who appreciates my work.”
• “I want to find a family who respects and understand me.”

Parents should be realistic about their expectations for a childcare worker. What in fact are realistic expectations? Let’s start with the most obvious fact: To you, it’s your home and your child, but to your caregiver , it’s a job. If the job brings attachment, love, and respect, generally everyone (especially your children) benefits. It’s no coincidence that virtually  every nanny needs to be respected and appreciated, and that the vast majority of parents who were satisfied with their permanent childcare arrangements also spoke about their relationships of mutual respect with caregivers. As a parent, you may expect yourself to be on call twenty-four hours a day, but you cannot reasonably expect this of your employee. You may give selflessly to your children, but your caregiver (who may in fact love your kids) may also have a family of her own.

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“I was a single mother. I definitely need to work and I definitely needed childcare. After the baby was born, I had a month to relax and recover from my episiotomy. I didn’t even sit at my desk the entire month (because of the baby, not the episiotomy). But then I had to get some childcare help. I had to get back to work. I had a career; I had responsibilities. One time, the baby’s father looked after him while I ran to the office. But when I got home, I discovered that he was holding a business meeting instead of the baby. Clearly this was not a solution to my need for childcare!

Maybe there are more choices now, but I was on the leading edge of the childcare and maternal employment wave, and the pickin’s were pretty slim. My first “childcare” was a young student who came to my house several hours a week. Usually I ended up sending her to run errands for me, because the baby was always asleep when she arrived. It was helpful to have a personal shopper, but it wasn’t childcare. I started interviewing nannies – quite a few nannies. I finally found one that I liked. She had a young child herself and she seemed kind and knowledgeable. She sure seemed to know more about babies than I did. But when I called to offer her the job, I discovered that the rate that I thought was for the month was for the week! That woke me up in a hurry. I wasn’t going to be able to afford an in-home caregiver.
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I looked in the paper for women who watched children in their homes. There weren’t many in the neighborhood, and being in the neighborhood was important to me. Eventually, I found a woman who stayed home because she had a toddler herself, and she wanted to care for one more child to make a little extra money. I sounded promising; it was affordable and there was only one other child, so I was sure that my son would get plenty of attention. Within a month, though, this woman had taken in another child, and soon she said she was looking for another one. That wasn’t the direction I wanted to go, so I got on the childcare carousel again. I found another home with a woman who was staying home with her own toddler. This worked well . . . until she got pregnant and decided she wouldn’t do childcare anymore.

I was back to the now all-too-familiar task of interviewing care providers. My first choice – a wonderful woman with a background as a nursery school teacher – had changed her mind by the time I called to hire her. She was going to do something entirely different. I don’t remember what it was now – maybe making jewelry. So I went to my second choice – a young woman who had just graduated from college with a degree in animal science. I was her second choice too. She hadn’t be able to land a job at the zoo, so she thought that taking care of babies would be the next thing. She wasn’t ideal, but I needed someone right away, and she worked out okay, I guess. She was shy and quiet, and she didn’t talk to the baby as much as I would have liked. But she was careful and caring. She took my son to the park; she played with him in the yard. He was safe and seemed content.

At the end of the year, though, my job required me to move across the country. So back on the childcare carousel I went, before my son had even had his second birthday. This time, I went to the university and checked with a childcare expert. She recommended the childcare home where her son had gone. We tried it. It was clean and there were lots of toys. The care providers were very professional. But before the end of the year, I decided to look into nursery schools. My son was almost three, and I thought he would benefit from a more educational program. I was lucky to find a Montessori school and talk the director into accepting my son even though he wasn’t toilet trained. “Never mind”, she said, “he soon will be.” She was wrong about that (every day I picked up a little wet baggie when I picked up my son), but she was right to take him. He enjoyed it and thrived. But six months later, it was time to move again, and the childcare search recommenced. I found another Montessori school and I liked it. The director was intelligent; the teacher were fabulous – full of ideas and energy. Unfortunately, my son did not share my opinion. Every morning was a struggle to leave him inside the gate in tears. So once again, we moved to a new center. Although it was a longer drive, I had met the owner and liked her. She helped my son get integrated into the new class and watched out for him there. He was never really happy about going, but he tolerated it, and we stayed there until he started elementary school. At long last, after a dizzying five – year, eight – childcare – arrangements ride on the childcare carousel, I was able to jump off and move on.”

- Kathleen, age 60 (What We Know about Childcare- Alison Clarke-Stewart, Virginia D. Allhusen)

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Choosing child care is an important and sometimes hard decision. If you go back to work, it may mean the end of the special time with your child. For some parents it may feel good, since it means that you have time to do some things for yourself again. Whether you need child care for a very small number of hours or full-time (40 hours a week), spend the time needed to find the setting that is right for you and your child.

There are many child-care choices available. Some families have grandparents or other family to look after their children, while others have a babysitter or a nanny to come to their home. Some take their child to a family daycare provider who cares for a small group of children of different ages in their own home. And still others choose group child care at a centre.

Think about what it is that you are looking for or need.

Plan What Will Work for Your Family

• Do you need care full-time, part-time, or for only a few days a month?
• Can you get your child to daycare or does the caregiver need to come to you?
• Do you need care for the same days each week? Or will you need someone at short notice, or someone who can stay at night if necessary, or someone to care for your child on different days each week?
• How many hours of child care do you need each day? Think about travel time to and from daycare.
• Can you find child care close to your workplace?
• How much can you pay? (Find out about child care subsidies)

Plan What Will Work for Your Child

• Does your child like large groups, small groups or does he like one-to-one attention?
• Do you think he will be happy at home with one caregiver? Having brothers or sisters at home helps.
• Does you child like going out and having lots of things to do, or does he like quiet times the best?

Children can be happy in many different sorts of child-care settings.

(Toddler’s First Steps – A Best Chance Guide to Parenting Your Six-Month to Three-Year-Old)
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This is an example of a self-introductory letter received from a German applicant for a nanny position. The main idea is to provide information about yourself, your environment and your family.
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Dear family,

My name is Andrea Schwarz and I was born in Frankfurt, Germany on February 2nd 1982. My mother is a housewife and my father is a carpenter. My parents have three children: me, the youngest child in the family, my sister Anna is 28 years old and my brother Nick is 30 years old.

I think I had a great childhood and one of the most important things for me working with children is that I haven’t forgotten how I felt like when I was a child.
My home town is small and quiet but for me is the best and favorite. I miss it when I’m far away and it’s a great pleasure for me to come back after trips to other places. On the other hand, I am a real fidget and I like traveling very much. In my childhood I dreamt of a world tour.

Later other priorities happened. My brother got married early. Now he has two sons already. My older nephew, Alexander, was born when I was 16. As soon as I took him in my arms I realized: the biggest happiness in the world are children. That’s why after school I entered the Pedagogical Institute and graduated from it successfully in 2005 having the profession of a teacher of English, German and German Literature.

All that time working at school as a teacher of English, and also at families as a nanny and a tutor, assured me that I hadn’t made a mistake in choosing my mission and upbringing of children was that very thing I’d like to engage in. I like to give my knowledge to children, to teach them to make difference between good and bad, not only to teach them new things but also to bring up a child as a person.

I don’t have my own children yet . My family consists of parents, brother, sister and two wonderful beloved nephews. I love them very much and I am not shy in expressing my love to them. I enjoy and appreciate every moment of my life, I am an optimist, I like being outdoors, walking and camping. At home I also can’t sit without doing something. I can knit and sew. My nephews admire the sweaters I knit for them-new ones every winter. As for my parents, they like very much the evenings when I arrange “mini concerts” ( I completed the music school and I play piano). They have favourite melodies and I play them with great pleasure. By the way, there is a cat named Mars in our family. It is a music lover and it has its own favourite melodies too!

I like very much to spend my time with friends. Often we all together go to the country, picnic, play voley-ball, play guitar. Such enjoyable week-ends stick in our memory for a long time! My friends consider me a cheerful, frank and kind person. Sometimes they call me a fidget because I like to be challenged and to explore new things. For example, I learned the Greek language, now I take Spanish courses and also I am going to get a driver’s license.

Therefore, my participation in this program gives me a possibility to achieve two goals. The first one – I’d be able to enrich the store of knowledge and experience. The second one – the main one – I’d like very much to be useful, to give my love to children and to make new friends. I hope my dreams will come true!

Sincerely yours,

Andrea Schwartz

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The Live-in Caregiver Program is a special program whose objective is to bring workers to Canada to do live-in work as caregivers when there are not enough Canadians to fill the available positions.

A live-in caregiver is someone who provides care to children, the elderly or the disabled in a private household.

Successful applicants receive an employment authorization allowing them to work in Canada as live-in caregivers. After two years of employment, which must be completed within three years of the caregiver’s arrival in Canada, program participants can apply in Canada to become permanent residents. They may be granted permanent resident status provided they meet certain requirements.

Do you have more questions? Visit our Forum: CAREGIVERS in CANADA.

There are three main requirements you will have to meet to qualify under the Live-in Caregiver Program:

• Successful completion of the equivalent of a Canadian high school education. This requirement will help to ensure that participants who apply for permanent residence after two years will be able to succeed in the general labour market. Studies indicate that the majority of new jobs in Canada require at least a high school education.
• Six months of full-time training or 12 months of experience in paid employment in a field or occupation related to the job you are seeking as a live-in caregiver. You may have gained your training or experience in early childhood education, geriatric care,pediatric nursing or first aid, to name just a few areas. You may have completed your training as part of your formal education. In order to meet the criteria for experience, you must have completed one year of full-time paid employment, including at least six months of continuous employment with one employer, in that field or occupation. This experience must have been obtained within the three years immediately prior to the day on which you submit an application for an employment authorization to a visa officer.
• Ability to speak, read and understand either English or French. You must be able to function independently in a home setting. For example, you must be able to contact emergency services if required and to understand labels on medication. You will be unsupervised for most of the day and may be put in a position of having to communicate with someone outside the home. A good knowledge of English or French will also enable you to read and understand for yourself what your rights and obligations are.

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