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Government initiatives to increase number of nurses in B.C. should involve immigrant communities

Vancouver, B.C. – With last week’s announcement by the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Canada to invest $2.9 million from the federal government and British Columbia (B.C.) contributing $1.2 million to increase the number of nurses in the province, Filipino nurses in B.C. are critical of government-funded programs that have not benefited the community work they serve at a grassroots level.

“Systemically racist barriers and exclusionary policies within Canadian immigration and nursing regulatory bodies leave little option for Filipino nurses but to choose survival jobs that Canadians do not want to do,” stated Leah Diana of the Filipino Nurses Support Group.

The Filipino community is now the fourth largest visible minority group in Canada and third largest in B.C., and has for decades, faced obstacles in returning to practice their profession.

For nearly two decades, highly educated and skilled Philippine-trained nurses have been actively recruited through Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) to do the housekeeping, childrearing, and around-the-clock elderly care for families who can afford private live-in work.

“The LCP’s live-in requirement leaves nurses turned live-in caregivers vulnerable to poverty and terrible working conditions,” said Diana. Many earn as little as $2 per hour for 24 hours of work. The temporary immigrant status leaves them vulnerable to deportation because of oftentimes insurmountable, restrictions of the LCP.

Combined with immigration barriers, regulatory bodies’ policies add another element of further exclusion. A further requirement is Canadian nursing experience prior to obtaining nursing licensure, which makes nursing accreditation harder to reach for many Philippine-trained nurses.

“Regulatory bodies justify their restrictive policies as protection of ‘public safety’, but the worsening of the nursing shortage creates a primary threat to the health and safety of the public,” continued Diana.

Since 1995, the Filipino Nurses Support Group, a community-based organization of over 700 nurses from the Philippines in B.C. has effectively advocated for and helped bridge Philippine trained nurses, particularly those under the LCP, to B.C.’s nursing profession devoid of any concrete help from the provincial government.