An intersectional pathway penalty: Filipina immigrant women inside and outside Canada’s Live‐In Caregiver Program
| Published date | 01 April 2022 |
| Author | Naomi Lightman,Rupa Banerjee,Ethel Tungohan,Conely de Leon,Philip Kelly |
| Date | 01 April 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12851 |
International Migration. 2022;60:29–48.
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29
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 9 Marc h 2020
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Revised: 24 Februar y 2021
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Accepted: 17 March 2021
DOI: 10.1111/imig.12851
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An intersectional pathway penalty: Filipina
immigrant women inside and outside Canada’s
Live- In Caregiver Program
Naomi Lightman1| Rupa Banerjee2| Ethel Tungohan3|
Conely de Leon4| Philip Kelly5
© 2021 The Author s. Internationa l Migration © 2021 IOM
1Departme nt of Sociology, Unive rsity of
Calgary, Ca lgary, AB, Canad a
2School of Busi ness Management, R yerson
Universit y, Toronto, ON, Canada
3Departm ent of Politics, York Univ ersity,
Toronto, ON, Cana da
4Departm ent of Sociology, Ryer son
Universit y, Toronto, ON, Canada
5Faculty of Envir onmental and Urb an
Change, York Unive rsity, Toronto, ON,
Canada
Correspondence
Naomi Lightm an, University of C algary,
2500 Univer sity Drive NW, Calg ary AB,
T2N 1N4
Email: naomi.lightman@ucalgary.ca
Funding information
Social Scien ces and Humanitie s Research
Council of Can ada, Grant/Award Nu mber:
4 3 0 - 2 0 1 8 - 000 6 2 a n d 4 3 0 - 20 1 8 -0 8 4 2
Abstract
This study uses Statistics Canada's Longitudinal Immigration
Database to examine the ‘intersectional pathway penalty’
experien ced by immigrant women fro m the Philippines en-
tering Ca nada between 1996 a nd 2016 through t hree im-
migration categories. Es timating a series of growth cur ve
models of employment income for 642,885 women, we
compare F ilipina immigrants’ earni ngs trajectories wit h
female immigrants from other source countries to high-
light how country of origin intersects with entry class to
affect immigra nt wom en's p ost- mig ration labour market
integration. Viewed through th e lens of interse ctionality,
our results indicate that processe s of differentiation tied to
race and immigrant status result in Filipina women outper-
forming com parable women fro m other sources countries
within t he Live- in Caregiver Program, wher e earnings are
consistently lowest. However, within the higher earning
Federal Skilled Worker Program entry class, Filipinas expe-
rience downward labour market mobility relative to women
from other source countries, ultimately emphasizing the
devalued nature of car e work.
[Correcti on added on 16 Apri l 2021, after fir st online publ ication: The af filiations fo r Rupa Banerje e, Conely de Leo n and Philip Kelly we re updated
in this versio n.]
30
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LIGHTM AN eTAL.
INTRODUCTION
The present study examines h ow Filipina immigra nts’ pathways to set tling in Canada, determined by entr y class,
affect t heir labour mar ket integration rela tive to other fem ale immigrants. In so doing, we aim to provide empir-
ical ev idence of th e intersectio nal processes of differe ntiation, tied to race and immigrant status, that result in
relative downward mobility for women entering Canada to perform work in care. Historically, the experiences of
(racialized) immigr ant women were largely overlooked or oversim plified in research on migration an d work (e.g. Li,
1978; Porter, 1965, Richmond et al., 1980), due to a prioritizat ion of the experiences of male immigrants who were
typically conceived of as the prima ry mover and main ear ner. However, since the early 1980s, m any studies have
incorporate d an examination of gender diff erences in immigr ant labour marke t outcomes (e.g. Banerjee & Phan ,
2015; Elrick & L ightman, 2016; Ferrer & Riddell, 2008), with more recent st udies shifting fr om simply comparing
outcomes by gender to investigating the complexities of immigrant women's experiences navigating gendered,
racialized and classed sy stems of dominat ion in paid work (see Baner jee, 2019; Dhamoon , 2011; Nawyn, 2 010).
We suggest that the effe ct of intersectional proce sses of differentiation can be se en in every aspect of migration,
from the decision to emigrate , to the entry class through which a person immigr ates, to post- migration settlement
and employment experiences.
The Philippi nes, in particu lar, is now regularly am ong the top source countries for new i mmigrants arrivi ng in
Canada. Women repre sent a significantly larger propor tion of immigrants from the Philippi nes (close to 60%) than
other imm igrant group s (Yssaad & Field s, 2018). Yet, there is a paucity of lar ge- scale and long itudinal quan titative
analyses of Filipina immigrant s’ multifaceted experiences in the labour market. In this study, we aim to address two
gaps within the scholarly literature. First, most studies fail to apply an explicitly intersectional analysis to the im-
pact of entry clas s on labour market trajector ies in Canada and internationa lly. Second, the longer- term economic
outcomes of Filipinas arriving via the Live- In Caregiver Program (LCP), a ‘two- step’ immigr ation pathway, remain
largely unk nown, in compari son to both Filip inas who enter u nder other immigr ation entry s treams, and wome n
arriving f rom other source countries with e quivalent human c apital. Consequ ently, our study a ddresses two key
research questions:
1. In w hat ways doe s Canada's gendered, racia lized, and c lassed immigrat ion system struc ture migration
pathways, and how d o these migration pathway s in turn affect post- migration integration, as me asured
by employment income over time?
2. Do Filipina women, as a fe minized and racialized immigrant labour force in Canada, have d istinctive labour
market traj ectories as com pared to women from other source countries and across various i mmigration entr y
streams?
Using newly r eleased longitudin al administrative data from Statist ics Canada, we co mpare the labour market
trajectori es of Filipina and non- Filipina women of typical working age (25– 64 years) who i mmigrated to Ca nada
between 1996 and 2016 ei ther as pri ncipal applica nts in the Federal Sk illed Worker (FS WP) category, principal
applicants in the Live- in Caregiver Program (LCP), or through the Family Class (FC) as spouses/common law. This
population is selected in order to compare outcomes a cross highly feminized entry streams (LCP and FC) and for
women who ent ered Canada based on specific assess ments of their rel evant training and h uman capital, bot h to
provide care wor k and otherwise (LCP versus F SWP).
Our r esults sugge st that over two decades, entry c lass has had substa ntive and ongoing ef fects on labour
market earni ngs for immigrant wo men, even when cont rolling for work ex perience prior to a chieving permanent
residence in Canad a, human capital, and persona l and f amily charac teristics. In particu lar, we provid e two key
findings. Firs t, women who came through th e LCP, typically wit h the intention at landing to work in in- home care
supportin g children, the elderly an d people with disabilitie s, earned less both initiall y and over the long term than
comparable women arr iving via other entry classes. This reinforces prior sugg estions of a ‘care [wage] penalty’ and
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