For many immigrant women, their family’s social and financial welfare is why they decide to come to Canada. This is true for both families that immigrate together, and for immigrants who come to Canada as temporary workers with the intention of sending back money to their families. This is called a remittance, and it is usually sent either to support the family back home, or to fund their own way to Canada as well.
Women’s ability to get sufficient paid work to support their families is limited relative to men’s. In Canada, women who have children in another country do not get the same benefits as other Canadian women do.
Many workers that send remittances are temporary workers, that come to Canada under specific programs looking to work for a year or two to gain immigrant status. One of those programs is the Live-in Caregiver Program.
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Resources
Stasiulis, Daiva and Abigail B. Bakan, “Negotiating Citizenship: The Case of Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada” Feminist Review 57 (1997), pp. 112-139.
Students exploring inequality in Canada 