'something that contributes to or has an influence on the re­sult of something’...(Webster’s dictionary) The past few weeks and days have been inundated with news about the Filipino as ‘Nanny’. It begun with Vancouver Magazine’s Sept. 2011 issue for what seemed to be an in­nocuous post-script to their de­mographics for the Ambleside district of West Vancouver. “Median Family income - $101,963 (B.C.-$62,346), Av. Home- $1,146,210 (B.C.- $418,703). ‘The Nanny Fac­tor’ (10 X) Number of Filipino women living in West Vancou­ver compared to Filipino men.” Why it was placed that way boggles my mind. There was no attribution as to where they got the facts and what is the relevance to the head. The implication is that Filipinos in West Van are mostly women and nannies! Why did the maga­zine take a survey of all nannies? If the Editors are not dummies they would know that men don’t usually work as nannies so why would there be more Filipino women in West Van?

 Then followed the landmark legal victory by a Filipina maid in Hong Kong that struck down its laws discriminating against domestic work­ers not able to apply for permanent residency no matter how many years they live in the city while other foreigners are allowed after seven years.

 

It is significant though that it was a Filipino who challenged the law since the majority of the 292,000 are Filipinos. Three days before we went to press, CBC TV came out with an investiga­tive report on two Filipina nannies that left their em­ployers complaining of be­ing treated as virtual slaves and abused physically and not paid their salaries.

The report had disturb­ing aspects when one of the women interviewed said she does not know any­body in town – no church, no community, etc.! Where are the agencies (churches, community organizations) that are supposed to serve them?

The police apparently told the woman that she could not file a complaint against the employer since the injuries were consistent with ‘lifting’ a heavy person. Since when did the police become doctors and judge the nature of the injury?

Sadly, the Filipino is constructed as ‘nanny’ and we cannot blame people from thinking that is the only job we can hold. Not that caregiving is bad –in the ideal world that should be a noble work.
What would Canada’s future leaders be with­out the loving care of our kababayans? The sick, the elderly, etc.? But more importantly, they are human be­ings and as such, they should be treated like one.

< Prev		Next >