Domestic Worker Activism: Women of Colour as Household Employees

From Landed Immigrant to Temporary Visas

Author: Leena Hussein, MI Candidate

The end of the West Indian Domestic Scheme coincided with the beginning of the Canada’s points-based immigration system in 1967. By the mid-1960s, Canada needed skilled labour but reported that its permanent residents were sponsoring unskilled family members to come to the country.¹ Many educated and skilled Caribbean women coming to Canada as domestic labours were unable to apply for permanent residence and instead came to the country by way of sponsorship from their employer which granted them a temporary visa.²

In 1973, the introduction of the Canadian Temporary Employment Authorization Program increased the number of domestic workers entering as temporary workers, with most of these workers being Caribbean or Southeast Asian women.³ From 1973 to 1981, the total amount of domestic workers coming to Canada with landed or permanent status dropped from 50.2% to 5.5%.⁴ This program’s drastic difference from the West Indian Domestic Scheme points to the heavy reliance on temporary work permits with a fixed term contract.

In 1981, Canada introduced the Foreign Domestic Movement Program, which saw the return of an opportunity to gain permanent status after a minimum length of service.⁵ The domestic workers had to prove their right to live in Canada by demonstrating their financial security and ability to integrate into Canadian society which was achieved by participating in community-based programs.⁶ Roughly ten years later, this program was renamed the Live-In Caregiver Program.⁷ Review the Additional Resources section to learn more about these different temporary work programs.

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Endnotes

1. Manpower and Immigration Canada, White Paper on Immigration, (Ottawa: Department of Manpower and Immigration, 1966), 12-14. https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/permalink/01UTORONTO_INST/14bjeso/alma991106114622406196.
2. Alexa Lepera, "‘It is all up to you!’ – The West Indian Domestic Scheme in Canada (1955–1967)," Ingenium, Nov 3, 2023, https://ingeniumcanada.org/channel/articles/it-is-all-up-to-you-the-west-indian-domestic-scheme-in-canada-1955-1967.
3. Shirley B. Seward and Kathryn McDade, Immigrant Women in Canada: A Policy Perspective, (Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1988), 40. https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/permalink/01UTORONTO_INST/blpd0s/alma991106277679306196.
4. Seward and McDade, 40-41.
5. Abigail B. Bakan and Daiva Stasiulis, “Foreign Domestic Worker Policy in Canada and the Social Boundaries of Modern Citizenship,” Science & Society 58, no. 1 (1994): 9. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40403381.
6. Bakan and Stasiulis, 15.
7. Felicita O. Villasin and M. Ann Phillips, “Falling through the Cracks: Domestic Workers and Progressive Movements,” Canadian Woman Studies 14, no. 2 (1994): 87. https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/9969.

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Additional Resources

• Bakan, Abigail B, and Daiva K Stasiulis. “Making the Match: Domestic Placement Agencies and the Racialization of Women’s Household Work.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 20, no. 2 (1995): 303–35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174951.
• Bristow, Peggy. We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/permalink/01UTORONTO_INST/blpd0s/alma991106325225506196.
• Cohen, Rina. “Women of Color in White Households: Coping Strategies of Live-in Domestic Workers.” Qualitative Sociology 14, no. 2 (1991): 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992194.
• Henry, Frances. “The West Indian Domestic Scheme in Canada.” Social and Economic Studies 17, no. 1 (1968): 83–91. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27856309.
• Lawson, Erica. “The Gendered Working Lives of Seven Jamaican Women in Canada: A Story about ‘Here’ and ‘There’ in a Transnational Economy.” Feminist Formations 25, no. 1 (2013): 138–56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43860670.
• Lenard, Patti Tamara, and Christine Straehle. Legislated Inequality: Temporary Labour Migration in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012. https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/permalink/01UTORONTO_INST/blpd0s/alma991105929236406196.
• Raska, Jan. "Recruiting Domestic Workers and Live-In Caregivers in Canada." Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. https://pier21.ca/recruiting-domestic-workers-and-live-caregivers-canada.

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