Background
Health of temporary foreign workers
Methods
Sample
Data collection and analysis
Results
Participants
# | % | |
---|---|---|
25–34 years | 12 | 40.0% |
35–49 years | 11 | 36.7% |
50–60 years | 7 | 23.3% |
Gender | ||
Female | 30 | 100% |
Place of Birth | ||
Philippines | 25 | 83.3% |
Other (i.e. Hungary, Ukraine, Poland) | 5 | 16.7% |
Length in Canada | ||
Less than one year | 3 | 10.0% |
12–24 Months | 3 | 10.0% |
More than 2 years (more than two years) | 24 | 80.0% |
Current relationship status | ||
Single, Never married | 10 | 33.3% |
Married | 16 | 53.3% |
Separated/Divorced | 4 | 13.3% |
Do you have children | ||
Yes | 15 | 50.0% |
No | 15 | 50.0% |
Number of children | ||
1 | 3 | 20.0% |
2 | 7 | 46.7% |
3 or more | 5 | 33.3% |
Number of children living with you in Canada | ||
None | 11 | 73.3% |
0–2 | 4 | 26.7% |
Highest level of education attained | ||
High School (12 grades) some or completed | 2 | 6.7% |
Other vocational training some or completed | 1 | 3.3% |
College (e.g. diploma) some or complete | 17 | 56.7% |
University (e.g. BA, BSc) some or completed | 8 | 26.7% |
Post- graduation (e.g. MA, PhD) some or completed | 2 | 6.7% |
Total | 30 | 100.0% |
Working-and-living conditions
Substandard working conditions
In my case I’m so blessed that I’ve had good employers and I only work specific time, eight hours and after that I have my own free time so after my work I will do my studies… Participant from Focus group 2
“I went out of the country [the Philippines] in 1985, going to the Middle East countries and I think it’s better because once you start a job you can be promoted. I was there for 10 years. I was a nurse there and I was promoted. You know, once you have a contract you are assured that you have housing, you even have a car that will bring you from the workplace and bring you home. Not here”. Participant from Focus group 3
“In the contract it just says eight hours but no, it is 24 hours; we do laundry, cooking, cleaning which is not what we were told before [we came]. I go to work at 6.00 a.m. and finish my work at 10:30-11:00 p.m. I had many employers but all of them are the same. You are supposed to have two days off but no I have to work Saturdays and then I can go for a day and then come back again.” Participant from Focus group 3
“You sign off as a caregiver and your job description is only to look after the kids and doing some work related with their care. Now once you are there they will ask you to cook some dishes for them and they find you are a good cook they will keep on asking for that. That means that’s another add-on to your job description. If you are a teacher back home of course you know how to teach kids—that’s another add on to the job. If you are good in mending clothes again that’s another add on and it goes on and on. So work never stops.” Participant from Focus group 3
“My house, the family that I live with, it’s stuffed with cameras…it is not like you do something bad to the kids but you have to all the time think about what you are doing—maybe they are not watching me but I think maybe they were; like my self-esteem goes very down and you feel, okay, no I’m not gonna do this thing because may be someone’s watching me”. Participant from Focus group 2
“My employer yells at me and the kids hit me. You cannot do anything, you cannot do anything. If you yell at them you get fired.” Participant from Focus group 1
“I was verbally abused by my client [employer]. They thought that we don’t know anything. Then I showed him my credentials, you have to know who I am and please do not talk to me like that. I was crying every night”. Participant from Focus group 2
Being “captive labourers”
“Even if we know what our rights are, we might as well keep on doing our work for [the] 24 months; otherwise, if we complain work will stop, that will [be an] impedim[ent] to [completing] our 24 months. So we stay quiet.” Participant from Focus group 2
“You want your family to come as soon as possible, so after we finish the 24 months then we can start the paper work permit, and then permanent resident, and that will make it a little bit closer to the final point when they come, the reunification is what we’re looking forward [to]”. Participant from Focus group 2
“They share you [as a servant] with whoever they feel like… You think you are just working for this employer but it does not happen. I work also for the [employer’s] sisters and friends. You have to do it and you cannot say no”. Participant from Focus group 2
Housed but homeless
“Even though the house is beautiful and they have many rooms and the rooms that they do not use have beautiful furniture, but whatever is left for the live-in caregiver is a basement room, windowless, airless, cold and damp.” Participant from Focus group 1
“I live with my employer, with no lock, just in the basement and a bed in there, but no lock, no room. I did not know that the bed that I sleep in was their dog’s bed until their daughter told me”. Participant from Focus group 2
“Like when you live with people, you live with their lives, you know. You’re lucky if a family doesn’t have any problems… but many families they have inside some problems but they will not show outside, and basically you sometimes have to listen to them arguing or some other stuff and … You still hear them.” Participant from Focus group 1
“Or the children, they come and knock at your door and say, “Are you here?” You can’t reject them… like even though you love them, right, but you still … but at the same time you kind of feel - Okay, maybe I need to do something.” Participant from Focus group 2
Caught between a rock and a hard place
“We studied back home and then we did work as nurses, we did work as teachers. Basically that’s the main problem - here we are cleaning their houses and it’s hard for us to accept that.” Participant from Focus group 2
“Because we came here as a live-in caregiver I think they see us as lower. They don’t see us as well educated professionals but as maids.” Participant from Focus group 2
“I was a nurse. When I first came to Canada I was not expecting that the work of a caregiver was a maid… But when my agency brought me to my employer and he said to me, “You have to clean the house.”… I showed my credentials to him, “You have to know who I am, and please don’t talk like that. I’m going to work with your mom and your dad, I would really like to work with them.” Because this is what we need to do to finish these 24 months of employment so we can get the benefit of it, I was crying every night. I can’t tell it to my children because I don’t like my family to get worried.” Participant from Focus group 2
“I would never ever tell my mom what I’m doing here, it would just hurt her and she would buy me the next ticket back to Ukraine. Like I had a teaching job, right, I had a teacher’s diploma and I came here and I started to suddenly clean toilets and change diapers, and pick up the laundry that the woman drops on the floor… and I don’t want to tell this to my family… they cannot do nothing.” Participant from Focus group 1
“[Being a caregiver] it’s sometimes good, sometimes bad. There’s a lot of pressure. Like, you know, our family depends on us back home so of course financially we could send money … of course at the end … we need to meet both ends. At the end of the month or payday our … most of our pay we send back home.” Participant from Focus group 3
Like in my case, my sister got a surgery and my mom was in ICU many times… so the only thing I can help is to send money, but your heart is just like … your [heart] got broken every time you get news. Say Monday and Wednesday it’s gone, money is gone, so it’s hard. Where can you get this loan? And then, you know, it’s so hard to meet both ends. Participant from Focus group 3
After I finish my contract what is the next step? I keep on thinking about all that and sometimes there are nights that I can’t sleep, I keep on crying... I really want to help [family] that’s why I need to do something. I have to save some money for my school. Still I keep on waiting for my PR [Permanent Residency]. If it comes then I can go for my schooling. Participant from Focus group 2
I want my family to be here so I did sacrifice and it’s all worth it. So after my five years my daughter came and I was a live-out. I said [to employer], “I want to be a live-out now and the pay should be different.” […] You see, I am driving, I am cooking, a lot of cooking… So I said, “Cooking is a different pay…” And she said, “How much?” I want $20 per hour, that’s the cheapest I could give… And she said, ‘Oh you’re a good negotiator.” And this is what I did… my relationship with my employer is really very good. Participant from Focus group 2
Stress, health decline and social support
Stress related to work demands
“So our blood pressure goes up, our blood sugar goes up, so to sum it up we came here healthy. I worked in Hong Kong 15 years and thank God I was okay. I did not have a cold, I didn’t have a flu or whatever, but when I came here there’s tons of it, one after another, our body deteriorates”. Participant from Focus group 3
Stress related to loss and grief
“I am always worrying about my family… I am so stressed and actually I was on sick leave for 12 days because of the stress but what I keep worrying is about my family, that if I lose my job right now, because I know I’m not happy with it… If I leave this job and I cannot find a job tomorrow then I lose pay. It’s always like that. So instead of leaving the family that I’m working now which I am not happy, I have to stay which is hard. I have to stay… I’m worried my family because I’m earning the money for my family, not just for myself. Participant from Focus group 2
It happened to me last year, My father passed away and when I take care of papa [employer], I always think about my father – when he needed me most I wasn’t there but… what am I doing to… And last night I dreamed about my father and I ended up crying and I say, why is it that I dream about my father when he had already passed away? Participant from Focus group 2
I remember when my grandfather died in Poland I was so depressed, I cried. I remember now my grandmother died and she was very close to me… and I wasn’t there, I wasn’t there at the funeral… I feel bad about it sometimes because when I go there, they’re all together very close, you know, my niece - she’s more close with my brother’s girlfriend than with me, you know, because they just don’t know me. So sometimes it’s painful for me kind of stuff, you know, yeah. Participant from Focus group 1
Ambiguous role of family as social support
I don’t tell anything my family, especially if my employer do something and I feel hurt and then I get a call from my mom or sister-in-law, “Oh, how are you?” And even though I don’t tell anything, “Oh I’m okay.” But the way you talk, your voice, they know that you’re hiding something. So Saturday night, oh I feel bad because my employer yelled at me… and the kids hit me so… Participant from Focus group 3
“I feel lonely, very lonely. Lonely because I do not tell my family anything and do not want to talk to strangers because I’m thinking they may just mislead me”.
“I just kept it to myself and just cry every night”. Participant from Focus group 2
Social support beyond family
Well so far I didn’t need help but I didn’t know any places and yeah, like what if I [need help], the only place I will go to… will be my friends. These two ladies, they are my family. I will go to them first, the first place I will go to is them, like I know I can rely on them, but I mean services from the government or something, no, I don’t know. Participant from Focus group 3
“It is good to have friends, friends are friends, but they are the same as I am. They don’t know their rights, they do not know what to do in this situation …. I will ask for suggestions and they will be like, yeah, you should go here or may be, I don’t know there”. Participant from Focus group 2
“So whatever is going on I just keep it to myself and the only thing I do is to go to church every week-end. I’m asking them, please don’t make me work on Sunday because this is the only time I can go and do something for myself.” Participant from Focus group 2.
Mental health, resilience and access to care
Perspectives on mental health
“I can’t go depressed. I cannot show like I have bad day. Like I learn how to control myself. Before in my country I will tell you in your eyes how I feel but because of this program I do not know if I learned something or I’m good actress… I never show people how bad I feel...I will control my emotions.” Participant from Focus group 2.
“They don’t want a depressed person to take care of their children. They do not want to hear your problems. Their problem is very important. If someone dies in their families it’s important. If you have a problem or someone dies you have to say everything is fine and leave your problems in the basement and you have to go and you have to be happy to take care of the children”. Participant from Focus group 3
Perspectives on mental illness
“Back home and even here also because it’s a common idea that if you are mentally unhealthy you are insane. But come to think of it, it’s not just that because there are times in our lives when we feel depressed and I think it’s a matter of how you cope with those stresses you encounter each day. It’s just how you deal with it. If you are strong enough, mentally strong enough, you will cope but if you are not that strong then you will go [into] depression and other mental problems in that matter”. Participant from Focus group 2.
“Filipinos by nature are resilient, you can prove to the world that Filipinos are resilient”. “I feel strong and I thank God for it ... I do not want to be depressed but I want to be strong for my son”. Participant from Focus group 3.
Access to mental health services
“In the Philippine, if we go to psychiatrists they think you are crazy.” Participant from Focus group 3.
“If I am depressed or anxious it is my decision to overcome this thing.” Participant from Focus group 2.
“As long as we have someone to pour our hearts out with them, all our anguish, our pain will disappear. And we leave our needs and our longing to God”. Participant from Focus group 2.
“When you tell your problems to someone that you know or that you’re familiar [with] it’s better than going to a clinic or something that you don’t know. So we better share our stories to someone we trust.” Participant from Focus group 1.
“I was depressed at times so I really talked with a counsellor at a walk-in clinic near my home. I said I am really stressed out. I don’t know how to get over [that] because financially my mom, sister and daughter and all siblings are depending on me. And I do not know how to get over it and I said I need someone to talk to. So I had a counsellor…So I had once”. Participant from Focus group 1.