Vilma Pagaduan: Caregivers and Family Separation

vilma pagaduan: Although a Ryerson and York University study showed that it takes the government an average of 19 months to process caregivers' permanent residency applications, caregivers who have approached the organization Migrante-Ontario for help with their applications have waited up to a decade, according to Rabble. Former caregiver and current member of the caregiver advocacy organization Eto Tayong Caregivers Caregivers are Here Vilma Pagaduan highlighted the social costs of extended family separation. Carrying placards reading Expedite backlog now! Let families reunite, Canada, Stop Breaking Families Apart, and Closed Work Permit Slavery, the caregivers in attendance -- many of whom took unpaid days off to attend this gathering -- demanded the Canadian government handle the 27,000 permanent residency applications submitted by caregivers that have yet to be processed. Because caregivers have been kept apart from their families for years, their families are in limbo in many cases, caregivers' marriages break apart because they've been apart from their partners for so long, she said. My children beg me everyday to live together, she said. Caregiver Jocelyn Goderoy echoed Pagaduan's remarks about the emotional challenges caregivers and their children face when living apart, pointing to how she has been abroad for 13 years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.