Employment Commitment: Caregivers and Education Requirements

employment commitment: Under the old live-in caregiver program, an average of 8,000 caregivers received permanent status every year between 2006 and 2014 after they fulfilled the two-year live-in employment commitment and got their medical and criminal clearances, according to Toronto Star. The rule changes are a blow to the immigration dreams of foreign caregivers, who have seen their transition rate from temporary worker status to permanent residency slowly falling from a peak of 83 per cent in the 1990s. According to Immigration Department data, about 20 per cent, or 555 caregivers out of 2,730 applicants, were granted permanent residency in the country in the three years after the former Conservative government set out the new language and post-secondary education requirements in November 2014. Read more Article Continued Below Liberals plan to reduce permanent resident backlog for caregivers Immigrants are largely behind Canada's status as one of the best-educated countries In addition to the formal accreditation requirements for language and education, the former Conservative government made changes to cap the number of caregivers who can access permanent residency to 5,500 applicants a year and require employers to pay a 1,000 application fee to bring in caregivers. react-empty 174 The government also removed the requirement that caregivers must live with their employer, with the goal of reducing the potential for abuse and exploitation Despite the great demand for caregivers in looking after Canada's aging population and young children, critics say that overall the changes are part of a trend to create hurdles for low-skilled migrant workers to acquire permanent status, turning them into perpetual guest workers. Little has changed for the caregivers, said University of Toronto social work professor Rupaleem Bhuyan, who leads The Migrant Mothers Project, a community-university research initiative to study the effect of immigration policies. They also say the majority of current caregivers still live with employers because they can't afford transportation and rent to have their own place. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.