Based on the findings revealed by our interviews with immigrant care workers, we can tease apart three types of relationships with the old people they care for: a) a ‘professional relationship’, characterized by clearly identified border between client and carer somewhat devoid of any emotional attachment; b) ‘friendly relationship’ marked by friendship between client and carer (developed usually in home care settings and as live-in-carers); and c) ‘discriminatory relationship’ described by respondents as the one that includes verbal abuse from clients on the basis of carer’s skin colour, language difficulties and accent.

When some immigrant care workers were asked whether they had developed a sense of companionship with their clients, many described a more professional relationship:

I would like to be more like a professional level. I don’t want to be close and I don’t want to... like we are really good but I don’t want to go any further. (Ontario Care Worker J7)

From the clients’ perspective, this kind of detachment, albeit professional, was regarded with some disdain:

Physically they’re rougher with you... with me. I feel bad saying that but yeah, I find that they’re physically much rougher. Um, they will come in the room and not say a word and just grab your arm and start doing an IV. That kind of thing, where there’s no, there’s no caring. ... It’s just get the job done. (BC Care Recipient 1)

By way of contrast, some immigrant care workers felt comfortable developing very friendly relations with their elderly clients. This is particularly true for the live-in caregivers in the LCP:

Friendship, yes. And if we’re lucky they treat us like their granddaughter too. Yeah, we have some clients like that. And their family also, like they treat us like their relatives. (Ontario Care Worker A1)

They treat me like a daughter, like family, that’s what we want. (QUÉBEC Care Worker 6)

Similarly, a few elderly people noted that they had pleasant relationships with their immigrant care workers. They talked about their care worker being friendly, helpful and willing to go above and beyond their duties to make sure that their clients were satisfied. Some users of care pointed out that informal communication between the care worker and themselves is important because the elderly can get lonely. One of the elderly people we interviewed described a particularly good carer as follows:

I have a caregiver that lives right in this room. She is very empathetic. She’s a caring lovely person, and the lengths she goes to for some of her clients is to the nth degree. She really, truly does. She stayed up with an 82 year old man because he was very, very ill. He had no family. And he thought of her as family so she stayed with him until he passed away. That’s what I call a kind of devotion. (Older person - BC 4)

I have had good experiences for example or bad experiences when I worked with this guy at the private home. He said first of all... because he’s German descent... he said first of all asking me my race was clear. And I said ‘Well I really don’t know. We’d have to do a genetic study.’ And he said ‘Well I think you are not clear because in South America there are a lot of Indians.’ So I don’t know if that was a discrimination or not but, you know, I don’t care. (Ontario Care Worker A7)

Yeah. I have experienced that with my resident. One of my residents in the other job was Italian. And I think he is a racist. Every time a black caregiver or staff come over to his room he said ‘Go to hell. I don’t want you. I don’t want black people.’ So he is racist. (Ontario Care Worker J14)

But some ladies don’t want... a black woman for example and they say that. ‘Oh I don’t like that black woman.’ That’s really frustrating because she can be the best person, she can be the best worker, and just because she is black. Once I heard in that nursing home they don’t like the Philippine people. They are great. They are really hard workers. What’s the problem? Always there are people like that. (Ontario Care Worker A2)

Lastly, interviews reveal that although immigrant carers are generally treated with respect and dignity by their elderly clients, racism still plays a part in their working experiences. Some participants (especially those who self-identify as Black and Brown, migrating mostly from Africa and the Philippines) report that that they experience a high level of discrimination based on their skin colour, by elderly patients. More specifically, these workers say that due to their skin colour, they are often looked down on, under suspicion of stealing and verbally attacked by the clients. Recalling such experiences, three workers described:

Some of the older persons we interviewed mentioned that some immigrant care workers are better care workers because their cultures foster a more positive attitude toward caring for elderly. This was noted in particular with regard to Filipino care workers. Explaining such an issue, one older man we interviewed said:

You have different characters in every nationality. You know, you take like Filipinos, they're very soft people, very caring People. (Older Person – QUÉBEC 1)

Many respondents felt that foreign born care workers were more caring because they have been trained to do that all their lives with their families.

I did notice that the people that were from abroad, in particular the people that we had come in from like the Philippines, I noticed that ... culturally, you know, you can speak basically in general terms in those countries they have a little bit different attitude towards the elderly. The whole families look after them. ...I’ve lived in the Philippines as well and I’ve seen how their care system works and the whole families look after elderly. And I don’t even think I saw one care facility the whole time I lived in the Philippines. (BC Care Recipient 2)

A few respondents also mentioned that they think that foreign born care workers are much more committed to their job because they come to Canada to pursue a better life and the route to achieving a better life is through working hard in one’s job. Some, however, mentioned that Canadian born care workers were more committed to their jobs.

I’m thinking back to a lot of different people. The thing was that some of them, like they didn’t want to be care aides. They just wanted to be in Canada and this was the way to do it. Like two of them were civil engineers. You know. They were not doing the job they wanted to do and so therefore they weren’t doing it well. And then again one of them who was the most physically cruel had worked for decades in a Canadian hospital somewhere. (BC Care Recipient 4)

Some of the older people we interviewed expressed concern about the quality of education and training of foreign born workers.

It’s also my experience the difference in how I’m treated. You know, a young immigrant worker doesn’t have the same understanding of how it feels when you get turned over and the tube is being yanked the wrong way or, you know? They don’t have the same, same training or the same care. I don’t know what it is but it’s just not there. (BC Care Recipient 1)