Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T11:27:50.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Filipino Health Care Aides and the Nursing Home Labour Market in Winnipeg*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2013

Sheila Novek
Sheila Novek*
Affiliation:
Centre on Aging, University of Manitoba
*
†Correspondence and requests for offprints should be sent to / La correspondance et les demandes de tirés-à-part doivent être adressées à: Sheila Novek, M.Sc. Centre on Aging 338 Isbister Building University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Canada’s nursing homes have become increasingly dependent on immigrant health care aides. More than any other ethnic group, Filipino women are over-represented among health care aides in the Canadian health care system. This qualitative study explored the employment experiences of Filipino health care aides in nursing homes from their own perspectives as well as those of policy stakeholders. Fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with Filipino health care aides and long-term-care policy stakeholders in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The results indicated that migrant social networks act as pathways linking immigrant women with employment opportunities in nursing homes. The composition of the labour force is also shaped by management strategies and labour market accommodations that respond to, and reinforce, these social networks. These findings have implications for workforce planning and the quality of care provision in nursing homes.

Résumé

Les maisons de soins infirmiers au Canada sont devenues de plus en plus dépendante des aides soignants immigrants. Plus qu’aucun autre groupe ethnique, les femmes philippines sont surrépresentées parmi les aidants (aides soignantes) dans le système de soins de santé canadien. Cette étude qualitative a exploré les expériences d’emploi des aides soignants immigrantes dans les maisons de soins infirmiers, de leurs points de vues, ainsi que ceux des intervenants. Quatorze entrevues ont été menées à Winnipeg, au Manitoba, avec aides de soins de santé philippines et avec les intervenants de soins de longue durée. Les résultats indiquaient que les réseaux sociaux immigrants agissent comme des voies reliant les femmes immigrantes des opportunités d’emploi dans les maisons des soins infirmiers. La composition de la main-d’œuvre est également faconnée par les stratégies de gestion et les ajustements du marché du travail, qui répondent à et renforcent ces réseaux sociaux. Ces résultats ont des implications pour la planification de la main-d’œuvre et la qualité de la prestation de soins dans les maisons de soins infirmiers.

Keywords

aginghealth care aidesimmigrant womennursing homessocial networksvieillissementaides soignants immigrantsimmigrantesmaisons de soins infirmiersréseaux sociaux
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 405 - 416
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to my advisor, Patricia Kaufert, and committee members, Ivy Lynn Bourgeault and Verena Menec, for their expert guidance and critical feedback. Special thanks, posthumously, to Barbara Payne for her feedback and support. I am particularly grateful to the participants of this study for their time and contributions. The research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholarship.

References

Anderson, B. (2007). A very private business: Exploring the demand for migrant domestic workers. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 14, 247–264.Google Scholar
Armstrong, P., Armstrong, H., & Scott-Dixon, K. (2008). Critical to care: The invisible women in health services. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Bakan, A., & Stasiulis, D. (1995). Foreign domestic worker policy in Canada and the social boundaries of modern citizenship. In Bakan, A., & Stasiulis, D. (Eds.), Not one of the family: Foreign domestic workers in Canada (pp. 29–52). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Ball, R. E. (2004). Divergent development, racialised rights: Globalized labour markets and the trade of nurses: The case of the Philippines. Women’s Studies International Forum, 27, 119–133.Google Scholar
Bourgeault, I. L., Atanackovic, J., Rashid, A., & Parpia, R. (2010). Relations between immigrant care workers and older persons in home and long-term care. Canadian Journal on Aging, 29, 109–118.Google Scholar
Bourgeault, I. L., & Wrede, S. (2008). Caring beyond borders: Comparing the relationship between work and migration patterns in Canada and Finland. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 99, S22–S26.Google Scholar
Brown, C. V., & Braun, K. (2008). Globalization, women’s migration, and the long-term-care-workforce. The Gerontologist, 48, 16–24.Google Scholar
Choy, C. C. (2003). Empire of care: Nursing and migration in Filipino American history. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Colombo, F., Llena-Nozal, A., Mercier, J., & Tjadens, F. (2011). Help wanted? Providing and paying for long-term care. OECD Health Policy Studies, OECD Publishing. ISBN-978-92-64-0977-59.Google Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Doupe, M., John, P. S., Chateau, D., Strang, D., Smele, S., Bozat-Emre, S., et al. (2012). Profiling the multidimensional needs of new nursing home residents: Evidence to support planning. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 13, 487. e9–e17.Google Scholar
Doyle, M., & Timonen, V. (2009). The different faces of care work: Understanding the experiences of the multi-cultural care workforce. Ageing and Society, 29, 337–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrenreich, B., & Hochschild, A. R. (2002). Global women: Nannies, maids and sex workers in the new economy. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.Google Scholar
Lindio-McGovern, L. (2003). Labour export in the context of globalization: The experience of Filipino domestic workers in Rome. International Sociology, 18, 513–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manitoba Labour and Immigration. (2012). Manitoba immigration fact: 2011 statistical report. Winnipeg, MB: Author.Google Scholar
Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU). (2006). Long term care in Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Author. Retrieved from http://www.nursesunion.mb.ca/.Google Scholar
Massey, D. S. (1988). Economic development and international migration in comparative perspective. Population and Development Review, 14, 383–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J. E. (1993). Theories of international migration: A review and appraisal. Population and Development Review, 19, 431–466.Google Scholar
Novek, S. (2011). Women, migration and care work: Filipino health care aides in Canada. (Master’s Thesis). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (Order No. MR84589, University of Manitoba).Google Scholar
Parrenas, R. S. (2001). Servants of globalization: Women, migration and domestic work. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Parrenas, R. S. (2008). The force of domesticity: Filipina migrants and globalization. New York, NY: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). (2008). Compendium of OFW statistics. Manila, Philippines: Department of Labor and Employment. Retrieved from http://www.poea.gov.ph/html/statistics.html.Google Scholar
Portes, A. (2007). Migration, development, and segmented assimilation: A conceptual review of the evidence. Annals of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 610, 73–97.Google Scholar
Pratt, G. (1999). From registered nurse to registered nanny: Discursive geographies of Filipina domestic workers in Vancouver, B.C. Economic Geography, 75, 215–236.Google Scholar
Pratt, G. (2008). Deskilling across the generations: Reunification among transnational Filipino families in Vancouver. Vancouver, BC: Metropolis British Columbia. Retrieved from http://www.mbc.metropolis.net/assets/uploads/files/wp/2008/WP08-06.pdf.Google Scholar
Pyper, W. (2004). Employment trends in nursing. Perspectives on Labour and Income. Catalogue no. 75-001-XIE. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada.Google Scholar
Redfoot, D. L., & Houser, A. N. (2005). “We shall travel on”: Quality of care, economic development, and the international migration of long-term care workers. Washington, DC: AARP Public Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Spencer, S., Martin, S., Bourgeault, I. L., & O’Shea, E. (2010). The role of migrant care workers in ageing societies: Report on research findings in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States. Geneva: International Organization for Migration (IOM).Google Scholar
Stasiulis, D. K., & Bakan, A. B. (2005). Negotiating citizenship: Migrant women in Canada and the global system. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. (2007). 2006 census of population. Catalogue no. 97-551-XCB2006005. Ottawa, ON: Author.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. (2008). National occupational classification for Statistics Canada 2006 (720C), sex (3) and selected demographic, cultural, labour force, educational and income characteristics (273) for the population 15 years and over of Canada, provinces, territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, 2006 census. Catalogue no. 97-564-X2006005. Ottawa, ON: Author.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. (2011). Residential care facilities 2009/2010. Catalogue no. 83-237-X. Ottawa, ON: Author.Google Scholar
Waldinger, R., & Lichter, M. I. (2003). How the other half works: Immigration and the social organization of labour. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Walsh, K., & Shutes, I. (2013). Care relationships, quality of care and migrant workers caring for older people. Ageing and Society, 33(3), 393–420.Google Scholar