In sum, this section reveals critical issues with regard to working conditions and relations of immigrant care workers employed in care settings for older adults. Although employers are often reluctant to admit that immigration status of their care workers matters, the interviews with immigrant care workers suggest an opposite perception. In particular, the immigrant care worker interviews suggest that being an immigrant greatly limits the chances of finding full-time and better paid jobs as employers often ask for Canadian experience which newcomers lack. The negative effect of immigration status on employment opportunities is especially important for those with non-permanent immigration status. In particular, those with refugee and temporary working visas are restricted in terms of possibility of pursuing further education and finding better paid jobs. Those who came through Live-in-Caregiver program are bound to the same employer for two years and are unable to exploit other employment opportunities. The immigrant care worker interviews also reveal that despite generally good relations with their employers, immigrant care workers feel that employers tend to allocate fewer shifts, heavier workloads and clients with more difficult patient conditions to them. It is interesting that despite such discrimination that they encounter in a workplace, few of the immigrant care workers belong to a labour union and some do not even know what one is.

In addition to advantages in employing immigrant care workers identified in the previous chapter, the employers find that there are certain challenges in regards to employing foreign workers. According to the employers, the greatest among these disadvantages are language barriers experienced with immigrant care workers in the course of their interactions with clients, staff and residents’ families. The other disadvantages most cited by employers are: need for additional job training for immigrant care workers after they enter workplace; the overqualification of some immigrant workers and difficulty to recognize their real credentials and degrees brought from other countries; lack of cultural sensitivity displayed towards residents by immigrant care workers; residents’ misinterpretation of immigrant care workers’ cultural differences which often leads them to question the quality of care provided by immigrant carers (discussed in further detail in the next section). Furthermore, the interviews reveal that in spite a generally good relationship between Canadian-born and immigrant care workers, occasional tensions do arise between them. These tensions are often linked to the use of immigrant care workers’ own language, difficulties understanding their accented English (or French), the culturally specific way of delivering care and a few believe their jobs are threatened by foreign-born workers. The interviews reveal that tensions also arise between immigrant groups whether they are from the same of different ethnic background.

The findings of this study also show that immigrant care workers in long-term and homecare settings experience a high level of isolation both at home and work. They do not socialize during their breaks at work mostly due to the lack of time and organization of staff in LTC settings. They have a few friends, mainly from their native countries, but they do not see them very often due to busy schedules. Integration services do not play a big role in lives of this group of workers - they are used largely when they need a more technical kind of help (for translation of papers, for instance). In the case of more complex life issues, the workers rely on help of family, friends and sometimes ethnic organizations.

Although workers consider their contracts fair, the interviews raise some broader issues concerning working conditions in the sector. Regardless of the type of setting in which they are employed, immigrant care workers note that due to lack of shifts, they have to work more than one job. This situation is the most difficult in case of immigrant care workers employed by agencies, who experience low pay, frequency of night shifts and work on-call. Some of the immigrant care workers reveal that working in home setting puts additional work, stress and responsibility on and isolates the worker due lack of team work and unpredictability that characterizes such setting. The amount of additional work and responsibility are greatest in case of immigrant care workers from Live-in-Caregiver Program since they live in clients’ homes and thus are expected to work day and night as well as to be completely responsible for a client whose family often reside far away. Many of the respondents maintain that nursing homes are more demanding than home care, hospitals and retirement homes due to heavier work load, more difficult patients’ condition and an overall shortage of staff and supplies.

As the final part of this chapter demonstrates, despite such hard working and living conditions, immigrant workers seem happy to stay in Canada and to continue working in this sector due to two main reasons. First, the better economic situation in Canada ensures a better life for both themselves and their families. Second, they see the current job in care sector for elderly as stepping stone to move onto other jobs within or beyond the sector. In fact, as we have seen, most of them plan to upgrade their education with aim to eventually find better paid jobs.