Growing up, Natalie Mukherjee and her sisters were cared for by Filipino nannies. Her family had two Filipino nurses taking turns to look after their late grandmother. Now a mother of three, she gets help from a Filipino live-in caregiver.Despite the many reincarnations through the years, the foreign caregiver program has been an integral part of Canadian immigration since women from England, Ireland and Finland were granted permanent residence in the early 1900s to come as “nannies,” “nursemaids” and “governesses.”With Ottawa set to start public consultations on the future of the caregiver program, Canadian families say the demand for foreign caregivers, especially in suburban Canada, is as great as ever.Read more: Canada’s immigration program for migrant caregivers under reviewNumber of migrant caregivers becoming permanent residents plummets after federal changesLiberals plan to reduce permanent resident backlog for caregiversEarlier this month, the federal government announced the current caregiver program will expire in November 2019 after a five-year run. The news has raised questions among families and caregivers about the future of the popular program.“We have an aging population and are caught up in a generation where our parents are still working and our kids can’t rely on their grandparents,” said Mukherjee of Markham. She and her husband, an accountant, have two daughters and a son, all under 7 years old.“Canadians are not picking up nanny jobs and there’s a wait-time galore for daycare spots. We work odd hours and the flexibility of having a live-in caregiver is something that no daycare can replace.”Canada’s caregiver program is unique because it allows a group of what are generally considered “low-skilled” migrant foreign workers to become permanent residents, along with their families, based on their commitment to work as full-time caregivers for a min ...
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