The Nanny Business: A Documentary on the Plight of Filipina Nannies in Canada

By Jeff | Tuesday, July 6, 2010 | 7 Comments

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Edelyn holds up pix 600x337 The Nanny Business: A Documentary on the Plight of Filipina Nannies in Canada

(c)The Nanny Business. Used by permission

Edelyn Pineda holds a picture of her daughter

On our family vacation in Vancouver Canada, the Wife and the Brother-In-Law were buying atis and lanzones in Granville Island‘s public market, so I minded the kids. While I was watching them, I noticed some Filipinas who were also taking care of children. These children were white and didn’t look like hapas, so I figured that the Filipinas must have been nannies. I had heard about Filipina nannies in Hong Kong, and I met some when I went there. As many people migrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada, it appeared to me that the custom of hiring Filipina nannies seemed to go with them.

In the Philippines, I had heard the occasional story of exploitation and abuse by employers of Hong Kong nannies. The documentary The Nanny Business talks about the exploitation and abuse of Filipina nannies not in Hong Kong but in Canada. A Canadian law offering fast track residency for immigrant caregivers has caused Filipinas to seek nanny jobs in Canada. The documentary follows some of these Filipinas. Edelyn Pineda paid thousands of dollars to a Canadian recruiter and then arrived in Toronto to find that her “employer” did not want her services. She had no money or a place to stay. Joelina Maluto lived in her recruitment agent’s basement with 16 others for two and a half months before getting a job where her employer forced her to work 18 hour days. Journalist Susan McClelland puts their stories in a larger context. “I’ve written about sex trafficking, but caregiver trafficking is something we are now finding out about too,” she says. Her article on this subject won a Canadian Amnesty Award.

The Nanny Business was written by Shelley Saywell and produced by Deborah Parks. It will be broadcast on Global Television’s summer documentary series ‘Currents’ on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10 pm.

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BusinessDiscriminationFamilyLifestyles

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dave_alli

This story amazed us. We have been trying for months now to find a Nanny in Canada, with no luck. So we had heard about amazing Filipina nannies that people have, and realized that this would be wonderful for our family, as we are 2 working parents, with 3 busy boys. My family lifestyle is crazy, waking our boys up WAY too early to shuffle them out of the house to daycare and coming home to try and quickly put together a meal for 3 starving boys after work…..we never just get to enjoy our kids. We realized having a live in LOYAL, loving person in our home for the same price we pay for daycare was unimaginable until we talked with all of these people that had nothing but fabulous things to say about their nannies. So the research started, we’ve hit nothing but dead ends, but refuse to go through an agency, because the costs are atrocous….we don’t mind paying to bring someone over to Canada, but to pay thousands of dollars to find somone and do the paperwork, and then pay them to come??? We could never afford that!!!! If there are Nannies that were brought over to Canada, and don’t have work yet…WHERE ARE THEY?? Does anyone know??? We would love to find someone, we are ready, willing and able….we just need to find someone who is willing to join our family…..

Let us know if you have any tips…. dave_alli@me.com

Thanks, it’s a horrible thing that happened, I hope we can be the family that makes a difference for someone with hopes and dreams…..
http://www.8asians.com/author/ancientone95131/ jeffat8asians

@Dave: I think you pretty much have to pay for an agency to get a Nanny, and there were some laws passed in response to some of the abuses that make it even harder and riskier to get a Nanny. I’ll post an update about this soon.
Pingback: An Update on Filipina Nannies in Canada | Business | 8Asians.com
llll5

Ahh..another sob story about the filipinas-and no, I have no interest in watching this program..how is it the media TOTALLY ignores tax paying CANADIAN families that have been used and abused by these people- we’ved been used twice by these self serving filipinas to get into Canada-we needed one for a special needs child. If you’re thinking of hiring one, ask around to families that have had one, especially now you have to pay for flights-ours lied-said she had no family in Canada-which is where she is now! Ours was sleeping with the filipino catholic priest! http://www.straight.com search Dhalla- shocking stories from Canadian familes. I will never ever get one again.
alan

i know many filipina nannies here in canada and some are doing very well but i also know of some horrow stories that they face
these ladies leave thier families to start a new life and make so many sacrafices to achieve that twos years or more in hong kong or some other countries then come here to work at least two more years before they can apply for thier pr and have to wait at least a year or longer to get it so now most of them have nor seen thier husbands or children in five years now
i believe they should be rspected for the sacrafice they have made in order to have a chance at a better life then what is offered in philippines with high unemployment, these are people who do not want a hand out in life all they want is an oppertunity to work and make a better life for themselves and thier families and i feel it is time for the goverment to start to monitor these so called agencies that are abusing them there are many good agencies out there but with the new rules and regulations the goverment has impposed on the employer makes it more difficult to find an employer many of the fees are so extravagent when there is no need to charge that fee yes i know there are forms to fill out as well as the interview process so on and so forth but when there is a defference of $1500 to $3500 i bekieve some are just gouging it is time for the goverment to step in regulate the industry as well as monitor the industry
keaw

If they weren’t separated from their families and in Canada, with the outcome of becoming landed immigrants, they would still be in Hong Kong or elsewhere, separated from their families, but not being able to eventually immigrate.

They choose to leave their families for whatever reasons, but Canada is not the culprit here. It has the only program on earth that ends the migrancy of these women.
RogerinTO

Why have kids if you have hire someone else to look after them?

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