There are few examples of Canada’s damaged immigration system more conspicuous than the challenges faced by Toronto’s Filipina nannies. Drawn to the country by the federal government’s caregiver program, this singular group of new Canadians has attracted the attention of such publications as Toronto Life, who profiled five nannies in August 2015, and the Toronto Star, which recently profiled Marcelina Gilles.
At the centre of these stories is the women’s battle to unite their families in Canada. Since 1992, according to the Toronto Life story, “some 75,000 Filipinos have become permanent residents of Canada through the federal government’s caregiver program.” In 2014 alone, more than 23,500 people arrived under the program, and as of last summer “the backlog of applications for permanent residency (was) 17,600 names long.”
Marcelina Gilles’ story is particularly destressing. She arrived in Toronto in 1999, but was not granted permanent residency until 2011, nor citizenship until 2015. She has been fighting with immigration authorities for 17 years to have her family join her.
“Marcellina has been trapped in different sets of rules that have all worked against her,” said Patricia Wells, Gilles’ immigration lawyer, to the Star. “The delay is not her fault. There are no good reasons why the processing should have taken so long.”
Being granted permanent status was a major step forward for Gilles, as it allowed her to sponsor her family’s immigration to Canada. However, her sponsorship application has been suspended in seemingly perpetual limbo. Today, she remains technically disqualified from sponsoring her family due to her income of approximately $80,100 per year, which she worked 78 hours a week to earn but which was deemed insufficient to support the seven dependants she listed on her application.
Elongated processing times are the norm for foreign workers hoping to bring their family to Canada. Toronto Life states that the average wait for permanent residency approval is 50 months. And that’s after two years of employment.
However, legislation introduced by the federal government this week hopes to “remove barriers to citizenship erected by its Conservatives predecessors while retaining and extending officials’ authority to deal with fraud,” according to a separate Toronto Star article. Immigration Minister John McCallum told the Star that the changes would “provide greater flexibility for applicants trying to meet the requirements for citizenship and help immigrants become full-fledged Canadian citizens sooner.”
“We are honouring all of the commitments on which we were elected,” McCallum said. “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. It’s not up to the government to revoke citizenship. We want to facilitate the process of people becoming Canadian citizens while retaining program integrity.”
While it is too early to speculate on the effect the new legislation will have on Canadians like Marcelina Gilles in particular, critics see it as a step in the direction.
“We are very pleased with the government’s decision to rescind the previous government’s Bill C-24 that made if far more difficult to obtain citizenship and far easier to lose,” said Debbie Douglas of the Ontario Council for Agencies Serving Immigrants.
Similarly, former director-general with the immigration department Andrew Griffith said: “They are removing some of the worst abuses the Conservatives did, promoting its diversity and inclusive agenda, without changing the fundamental value of real and meaningful commitment to Canadian citizenship.”
The permanent residency, citizenship, and immigration sponsorship programs can be complex and arduous, but an experienced immigration lawyer can help you understand the process and substantially ease your burden.
