New Canadian Law named after a Filipina!

This is certainly one of the best news I have read today. There had been numerous publications about serious maltreatment of our caregivers abroad and only a few have been so interesting just like this one.

Yup. you’ve read the headlines right. In the website of Canada’s Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, Minister Jason Kenney on Saturday announced proposed regulations to better protect the rights of live in caregivers and to make it easier for them and their families to obtain permanent residence in Canada. Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Toronto reports that of the 400,000 Filipinos in Canada, about 66 percent (or 264,000) are caregivers. And by the end of 2008, a total of 1,821 new hires were deployed to Canada as caregivers.

“Our government fully supports the ‘Juana Tejada Law.’ We propose to implement this change in her honor, to ensure that no one else has to endure this same painful experience,” said Kenney after extensive consultations with caregiver groups from across the country, as well as heartfelt testimony before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Juana Tejada was a caregiver in Canada who developed cancer while working,and  had fought hard to improve the situation of fellow foreign live-in caregivers

The first proposed change to the Live-in Caregiver Program eliminates the requirement for live-in caregivers to undergo a second medical examination when applying to become permanent residents, a change advocated by the late Juana Tejada. She was initially denied permanent resident status when she did not pass her second medical examination. It was only through special ministerial intervention that she gained status in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds

It was Juana Tejada who exposed this ambiguity in the immigration system. She risked her status and fought the threat of deportation so that other caregivers like her could have better protection of their rights. It was she who, with the help of her lawyer Raffy Fabregas and numerous advocates and activists and the community in general, pushed the immigration officials to act in the right direction,” he said.

“If there is someone to be called ‘champion and hero’ for the gains caregivers just won, it was Juana Tejada. She is, in this sense, a true ‘champion and hero’ of the Filipino people in Canada,” he added.

Thanks much to inquirer.net for some details.