Entangled pathways: International students working as essential care workers during COVID-19

Keywords: International Students; Personal Support Workers; Long term care: COVID-19; Labour geography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 5

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and accentuated an ongoing crisis of care in Long Term Care Facilities (LTC). A historic lack of investment in care, especially in areas of elder care, has resulted in LTC facilities being the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in several OECD nations, including Canada. Most workers in LTC in Canada are women and include disproportionate numbers of racialized migrants (both permanent and temporary). These care workers have typically faced poor employment conditions, low paying work, and often lack sufficient training for the demands made of them, all of which endanger the lives of care workers and the vulnerable elders they care for. Most workers in Ontario's LTC sector are personal support worker (PSWs). These are unregulated health workers without a clear scope of practice who collaborate with health professions. Recent developments in Canada’s immigration policy have seen a significant increase in the numbers of international students, and this includes those enrolled in health care programs. This presentation discusses results from a survey of PSWs in Ontario regarding their immigrant status, and experiences during the pandemic. Results highlight the incorporation of temporary international students into Canada’s health and care workforce, as well as internationally education nurses. These results provide some insight into the changing nature of global care chains that stratify racialized workers into Canada’s LTC sector and raises important policy considerations for how this type of two-step migration relates to the global distribution of health and care labour.