Understanding Labour Market Segmentation: Filipina Healthcare Workers in Transnational Toronto

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Understanding Labour Market Segmentation
Filipina Healthcare Workers in Transnational
Toronto

• Philip Kelly
• Department of Geography
• York University, Toronto
• and
• Silvia DAddario
• Department of Geography
• University of British Columbia
• Paper presented at the Atlantic Metropolis
  Conference,
• Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 19th 2004

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Outline1. The Labour Market2. Filipino
Migration and Settlement3. The Healthcare
Sector4. Transnational Bases of
Segmentation a. Institutional b.
Cultural c. Social d. Economic5.
Conclusion
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1. The Labour MarketFrom human capital
approaches to segmentation theoryThe
geographies of labour market segmentationBeyond
local labour markets to transnationalism
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in
CanadaA relatively recent, but important,
migration stream
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Highly educated and culturally prepared
Educational Profile of Various Groups, Toronto,
2001
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Heavy concentration in certain immigration
programs, especially LICG
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Gendered
Demographic Profile of Filipinos in Toronto, 2001
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada

Canadas Filipino Community The Geography of
Settlement, 2001
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Well-integrated into the urban fabric
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Employed rather than self-employed
Self Employment in Visible Minority Immigrant
Groups, Toronto, 2001
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Concentrated in specific labour market niches
Toronto Location Quotients
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2. Filipino Migration and Settlement in Canada
Underpaid
Average Employment Income (C) in Toronto in
2000, for population over 15 years with full
year, full time employment
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The Healthcare Sector
Health Sector Segmentation Location Quotients
for Toronto, 2001
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The Healthcare Sector
Immigrant Healthcare Workers, Landings in Canada,
1980-2001
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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Institutional

Nursing Colleges Licensed in the Philippines,
1920-2003
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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Institutional

Nurses licensed in the Philippines, 1970-2004
354,154 Nurses practicing in the Philippines
(2002) 27,150
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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Institutional

• Courses promoted as Your link to a global
  career
• Curriculum designed geared to international
  practice
• I think instead of lamenting the fact we are
  losing our graduates to foreign employee, we
  should look at the positive side of it. The
  global market for our nurses demands that our
  nursing students should be educated not only in
  our local health systems, practices, and
  problems. Our students should be taught about
  various cultures, health practices and beliefs
  they will be exposed to
• (Barcelo, Philippine Journal of Nursing, 71,
  3-416)
• Overseas alumni fundraising

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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Cultural

• Norms of Filipina Femininity
• That is the plus factor of Filipino nurses very
  compassionate, very understanding. Our
  humanitarian side dominates (Dean, St Lukes
  College of Nursing, Interview, Jan 2004)
• Parental influence
• families are sort of proud of having a nurse in
  the family, its just like a status kind of
  thing. So engineering and nursing, those are the
  two professions because it is just like a status
  symbol back home. You know I have a nurse.
  Well actually who asked me to be a nurse was my
  grandfather. He asked me to be a nurse and I said
  no I dont think so, but then on his dying bed
  he said yes Id like you to be one, so ya, I had
  to. (Nurse MB, Interview, Toronto, October
  2002)

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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Cultural

• Naturalization and gendering of migration in
  the life course as a family strategy
• You know why? Because my parents wanted me to go
  to the US. That is really their goal. It is not
  because youll learn a lot and things like that,
  but because they wanted me to follow after my
  sister. My sister is also a nurse, and a few
  years after she graduated she left for the
  States. And they wanted me to be the same - that
  I would also leave. (Nursing Instructor,
  Interview, Manila, January 2004)

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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Cultural

Racialized stereotypes in the labour
market Nowadays if you are an Asian, a Filipino
especially, you apply in all the service areas,
not the management area level, the service area
position. theyll probably get hired.
Filipinos reputation is as a healthcare giver,
we have a very good reputation, (Male Filipino ER
attendant, EDAA, Markham, Feb 2003) I think,
I don't really know, but I think if you were to
apply for a job in a hospital, I think other
cultures do realize that Filipinos are very
strongly into medical stuff. (Filipina medical
technician, AB, Toronto, March 2003)
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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Social Networks

• Institutionalization of migration through
  recruiters and agencies
• Transnational information flows and exemplars
• I have a friend in Texas, her name is Lita.
  Once, she called me, I told her, Lita, life here
  in the Philippines is so difficult. The
  government is so shaky. So, she told me, But,
  what are you doing there? You come here! How
  could I go there? Sabi ko, Im getting old, I
  have a small kid with me, I cannot leave him
  alone. No, you just have to take the CGFNS.
  You have to pass the exam and you can bring your
  immediate dependents, meaning my small kid and my
  husband. I still have a place here for you.
  Yeah, so that triggers my. so, she sent me this
  reviewer, that KAPLAN Ill send you this
  reviewer, dont stay bored and doing nothing
  there in the Philippines. Sabi niya, theres a
  lot of opportunity here. She used to talk to me
  hours, 30 minutes to 1 hour, in 1 hour over the
  phone. Imagine that, just to encourage me to
  start reviewing (Nurse in Cavite FGD, April
  2004 formerly in Saudi Arabia)

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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Social Networks

• Recruitment through networks
• I mean it's funny, my aunt that I said is a lab
  tech here, she works in Mississauga, every time
  they are looking for somebody they will ask my
  aunt if she has family or whatever. You know,
  they will like to hire from the inside first, and
  they will always ask my aunt because she has been
  there for long time but I guess they really trust
  your judgment or they know that obviously she is
  Filipino and she knows a lot of, like family wise
  she can get somebody. She has gotten a couple of
  people just because they ask her and I guess they
  trust her (Filipina medical technician, AB,
  March 2003)

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4. Transnational Bases of Segmentation

• Economic Flows

• Distant reproduction of the labour force
  through remittances
• if their relatives you know, if they were the
  ones who sent them to school, then naturally they
  have to go to the states. So, it depends where
  their relatives are stationed in Canada or in UK.
  So, it doesn't really matter for as long as they
  can get out of the country and you know, earn
  dollars, US dollars, any kind of dollars.
  ((Dean, St Lukes College of Nursing, Interview,
  Jan 2004)

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5. Conclusion

• Immigrant labour market segmentation neither
  starts nor finishes in the local labour market
  where it occurs
• It is a product of interconnected
  institutional, cultural, social and economic
  flows between sending and receiving sites
• Implies that immigrants are not individual
  actors attracted to appealing places they are
  part of a network and a strategy
• Thus existing immigrants are the best sources
  of new immigrants
• Overcoming deprofessionalization as an
  attraction and retention strategy