Status of Women Committee on April 27th, 2021

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good.

Okay. We'll go to Ms. Zahid for five minutes, and after that we will suspend to do the sound checks for the next panel.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to both witnesses for appearing before the committee and highlighting some of the issues facing women in rural communities.

My first question is for Ms. Anderson.

What are some of the main challenges that you think women face in your communities? Have you gathered some data or seen that there are more and further challenges for women from new immigrant families or racialized communities and indigenous communities? Could you please talk about some of those challenges?

[Traci Anderson]

Yes, for new immigrants, indigenous communities and women in those communities, I think it's very challenging. Again, I think back to the lack of opportunities and being defined in those traditional roles.

Aside from our platform around child care and Internet, I feel that there need to be better opportunities for those women, such as jobs, connections to culture and just opportunities to connect into communities. I think of a project that we're doing locally here where we're providing recreational activities for youth, children and their moms who identify as immigrants in Canada.

I don't know, Shealah, if you would want to touch on that.

[Shealah Hart]

Sure, Traci.

I believe, of course, that we look at someone's identity and we start looking at the intersections, and that of course things like race and language present barriers for families. Whether they're indigenous folks or immigrants or they belong to a racialized population, we see even more struggles for those people than we do for the people who don't have those identities.

I think that in rural communities sometimes those people are further marginalized than they would be in urban centres. I think there's sometimes more wariness about new people coming into the community. Sometimes it's difficult to fit in or to be accepted when people seem so different from you. I think we definitely see more struggles when it comes to those populations, and we need to work hard to ensure that people who belong to those groups have the same opportunities that others in our rural communities have available to them.

As well, I think we need to pay special attention when we're considering the opportunities we're creating in our rural communities to make sure that they are fitting with the needs of unique families with unique circumstances and backgrounds, not only in recognizing their uniqueness as a wonderful thing, but in looking at those families and those individuals and saying, “Hey, we're going to help you, and what can you do to help us?” How can they both benefit so that they have a great learning exchange there, with everyone benefiting, growing and taking something incredible away from the opportunities that their partnerships are able to create?

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Hart.

I have one more question.

Are there any gaps between the support services which are offered in the rural areas and the urban areas? Also, could you throw some light on how health care services for women living in rural areas could be improved, because that's also one of the very big issues.

Maybe Ms. Anderson wants to talk, or—

[Traci Anderson]

Thank you for the question, Madam Chair.

We are seeing a big increase in some mental health challenges. There are definitely gaps in rural communities around women accessing...and primary health as well.

My community is 100,000 and people are on wait-lists for doctors, so I can only imagine it in smaller communities. Some of them are travelling four or five hours to get access just to primary care.

We definitely are seeing a huge increase, especially in young women, around mental health concerns. That's also due to the pandemic. We are seeing some youth who are really losing hope around their future. That's very challenging and disheartening to see happening. There are not a lot of resources and access to supports in rural communities, mental-health wise and primary care.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I think that was an excellent point to leave on.

Thank you so much to our witnesses for your help with our study today.

For the information of committee members, we'll suspend, because I think we can get the opening remarks in by all of the people coming on the next panel before we go to vote. After the vote, I think we'll have time for a full round. That's the plan.

Let's suspend now and do the sound checks for our next panel.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We are now back.

We are continuing our study on women's unpaid work.

We have three witnesses joining us. Welcome.

First, we have Aline Lechaume, a research professor at Université Laval, in the faculty of social sciences.

From the Punjabi Community Health Services, we have Puneet Dhillon, who is the communications and research analyst.

Lastly, we have Yasmina Chouakri, a coordinator with Réseau d'action pour l'égalité des femmes immigrées et racisées du Québec.

You will each have five minutes for your presentation.

We will start with you, Ms. Lechaume.

[Aline Lechaume, Research Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval, As an Individual]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon.

Distinguished members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, thank you for this opportunity to discuss key aspects of the challenges of the invisible work done by immigrant women.

For the past 20-odd years, my research has focused on the social and occupational integration of immigrants to Canada, specifically, Quebec. I will be discussing the unpaid work of immigrant women through that lens, explaining how invisible work is a major barrier to the integration of immigrant women and how policies could better support them.

It does not take long to realize that many of the main barriers to the social and occupational integration of women immigrants are tied to the invisible work done by women. Take, for example, the administration and paperwork required to immigrate to and settle in Canada, including the various applications to access housing and enrol children in school. Think about the process to have credentials recognized or degrees compared and assessed, including sometimes having to redo courses or take qualifying exams. Think about learning to speak English or French, or going through the French integration process in Quebec. Building a network is another consideration—getting involved in the host community, doing volunteer work and so on. Of course, let's not forget the work-life balance, which usually pushes these women to accept unsteady part-time jobs in order to accommodate family obligations.

The mental burden on these women is huge. They shoulder the triple responsibility of integration, the family's successful immigration and the children's positive outcomes. Significantly increasing the burden of invisible work, these numerous responsibilities hinder the women's integration in the workforce.

Today, I will focus on three aspects: access to language learning, access to child care and the lack of networks.

I'll start with language learning. For those women who do not speak English or French when they come to Canada, the challenge is compounded. They must successfully learn one of the two official languages to not only get a job, but also help their children as they negotiate the school system. When it comes to integrating in Quebec in French, these women often fall short given the enormity of the task. Some even feel guilty for not speaking French well, because it impedes their integration in the workforce and in society more broadly.

I'll now turn to access to child care. This issue is of particular concern to women with temporary status and mother refugee claimants because they have little or no access to child care, especially reduced-contribution programs. The lack of child care is a major barrier to language training and employment when children are not yet of school age, of course.

Lastly, the lack of networks is an issue for many immigrant women because they are isolated while carrying the load of all their invisible work. What is already challenging for most Canadian families can be insurmountable for a woman who has just arrived here with her family and must see to the family's settlement. Just imagine not having a support system and having to go through the process of applying for health care coverage, opening a bank account, finding day care, enrolling your children in school, ensuring your family has warm clothes for the winter, feeding your family in a new environment for less money, and figuring out where to turn for various resources and supports.

Before wrapping up, I want to point out that the pandemic has exacerbated many aspects of the unpaid work immigrant women do. Specifically, I'm talking about the mental burden that comes from being responsible for following the public health guidelines and helping children do their schooling at home, all without a solid understanding of the language in which the children are being taught, a grasp of technology or the ability to afford a home computer.

In conclusion, invisible work is a millstone around the necks of immigrant women, especially those in vulnerable positions. Unfortunately, however, that work is underestimated because the women are treated as invisible.

I have four recommendations to share with the committee.

The first recommendation is to improve access to child care, regardless of the women's status.

The second recommendation is to expand access to both full-time and part-time language training, in coordination with child care for preschool-age children.

The third recommendation is to better coordinate community-based services and expand access to all immigrant women, regardless of their status.

The fourth and final recommendation is to promote initiatives aimed at building networks and ending isolation.

Thank you. I am, of course, available to answer any questions you have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you.

Now we go to Dr. Dhillon for five minutes.

[Dr. Puneet Dhillon, Communications and Research Analyst, Punjabi Community Health Services]

Hi, everyone.

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity.

My name is Puneet Dhillon, and I am the communications and research analyst with Punjabi Community Health Services.

The points I am going to share today are coming not only from an academic perspective to help reform the policy and practice, but are also based on my lived experience of over a decade of unpaid work, all of which I enjoyed believing it was normal, and the major part of it I did not.

Gender-based division of labour has existed for a very long time. In countries and societies with socially endorsed and legally protected male domination, it is practised and presented as normal. Women in such places are forced to manage homes and children, even if they are doctors, engineers, scientists and holding Ph.D.'s. It is the part of the deal of a happy family.

In countries like Canada, at least in legislative framework and in public policy, women are considered equal and not assumed to be managing homes and children while men go out and fend for families. However, within Canada there are social spaces and contexts where, ironically, gender-based division of labour is not only practised, but is collectively forced on women, such as South Asian communities.

This does not mean that women in such situations and contexts are not allowed to work and pursue their careers. They are. But they are expected to manage homes and children as well. While doing that latter part of the job, the work is neither recognized nor compensated and is not accounted for in the GDP.

Today I'm talking about such situations and those women who are overburdened with the necessity of paid work and are under social pressure of doing the unpaid work on a daily basis.

According to the United Nations, women's unpaid caregiving contribution ranges from 10% to 39% of national GDPs in different countries. This is more than the manufacturing and transportation sectors. As compared to men, women do 75% of the unpaid work in every household every day.

The working hours of a full-time employed man in a day are 7.5 hours. For a woman you add 90 minutes to that. For an immigrant housebound woman you add another 90 minutes. For a single mother with no social support of an extended family you add another 90 minutes.

Stats Canada and other agencies working for women have lots of data-based evidence to support the above point. Therefore, I will not throw more data at you. I will instead share with you less visible, less reported and less projected patterns and practices of unpaid work, and what can be done about this.

Immigrant women, after coming to Canada, face many challenges. The major one is looking for work, any work, even if this is a career demotion, or does not align with their skills. Then after a long day's work they come home, cook, manage children and manage houses.

With immigrant women, there is a segment of single parents who are the focus of my conversation today.

Single women parents certainly have 13-to-14-hour-long working day, and over the weekend they work even more in unpaid work to catch up on essential chores to keep the house and kids in order.

With COVID-19-related remote work now, the little space for their own small moments, which they used to plop in-between meetings for lunch or a tea break, have completely disappeared. Kids do not have day care to go to, or the families cannot afford it, or kids are attending schools from home, and, hence, the mother continues to multi-task. The overall drill adds to their burnout, impacting their physical, mental and emotional health.

I will present a set of five recommendations, the first being that when we talk about the unpaid work, we refer to the three Rs—recognize, reduce, redistribute—but we should also recognize a fourth R, which is reward.

While recognizing the unpaid work, I will urge you to recognize the specific segment of the population of women, the single mother-led households, who need a more equitable support system.

After the two above, the segment ought to be offered incentives, such as treating them with a different tax bracket, offering them child care rates geared to income, subsidized insurance—home, auto and others, if applicable—and dignified wages.

The fourth one is that you should consider making seven hours of work the full day for this group. That is actually the case with many jobs that are common to both men and women, but not in the private sector, and certainly not in the non-profit social sector. This half hour would go a long way in keeping single women parents healthy in many ways.

To help the above policy steps succeed, there must be education of communities and employers to make them fully aware of the additional work and valuable contributions of women in general, but particularly of single working moms.

I'm happy to elaborate more on this concept in follow-up correspondence, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for listening to me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

Will now hear from Ms. Chouakri.

You may go ahead. You have five minutes.

[Yasmina Chouakri, Coordinator, Réseau d’action pour l’égalité des femmes immigrées et racisées du Québec]

I, too, will be discussing immigrant women and their invisible work, which nevertheless has significant consequences.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

On a point of order, Madam Chair, we have only four minutes left until the vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Yes, I will cut her off exactly when it's time to vote, and we will suspend.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Chouakri, you may carry on.

[Yasmina Chouakri]

All right.

The two previous witnesses did a good job of highlighting the key issues, so I will not go over them again. I will, however, add a few things.

Although all women in Quebec and Canada likely perform invisible work and carry a heavier mental load than men, the phenomenon is certainly magnified among immigrant women, especially newcomers. These women are in a new environment and may run into barriers because of their immigration status. They may be family class immigrants, refugee claimants and refugees. They tend to have more difficulty speaking the language and to be in a position of dependency, vis-à-vis a spouse who is sponsoring them or immigration authorities who make determinations affecting temporary immigrants, refugee claimants and women with other types of immigration status.

Why is it so important to specifically address women who are newcomers? Because, on top of the housework and child care responsibilities assumed by women overall, newcomers experience unique circumstances. The integration of the husband or spouse tends to take precedence, so that means the husband is the one to learn the language or go back to school, for instance. The women come second. In the past few years, we've seen an ever-increasing number of women newcomers in these types of vulnerable situations. By that, I mean women refugees and women who are family class immigrants, and all those in similar circumstances, such as some temporary workers. Women whose immigration status is precarious really have a much harder time than women with other types of immigration status.

What's more, women immigrants with small children often put off learning the language. In some cases, they focus on finding a job first, out of necessity, so they can look after their families. They run into another problem as far as learning the language is concerned. We've seen it happen in Quebec, with French integration. Once the French language classes are over, these women don't necessarily come away being able to speak French. They don't have opportunities to go to places—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry—

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry to stop you there, but we really have to go to vote.

I will give you a couple of minutes when we come back, but we're going to suspend right now to go to vote. It should take about 10 minutes or so, and then everyone will come back, and we'll pick it up there. Thanks.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good. We'll start again.

Ms. Chouakri, you still have a few minutes to finish your presentation.

[Yasmina Chouakri]

When we left off, I was talking about the challenges concerning French integration. In many cases, immigrant women do not have access to, or know of, places where they can practise speaking French.

What's more, they face challenges in trying to understand how the host society works, especially when it comes to the labour market, the school system, and health and social services. The loss of their support network, their children's education and access to child care pose further challenges. These women also experience discrimination and racism, whether it be not having their prior learning and foreign credentials recognized, being subjected to employment discrimination or being required to have work experience in Quebec or Canada.

I'd like to revisit an issue that has already been raised, single parenthood, which is especially challenging for immigrant women. Being an immigrant and a single mother at the same time is even more difficult. Keep in mind that 84% of single-parent immigrants are women, so it is mostly women at the head of single-parent immigrant households.

Naturally, balancing work, family and learning also comes into play.

In conclusion, my main recommendation is simply this: remove the structural barriers that immigrant women face. All of the challenges I just listed represent structural barriers, including certain types of immigration status that make these women vulnerable and the notable gap in access to affordable child care.

My second recommendation is to recognize the invisible work these women do and its financial worth, at least providing recognition of all the work they carry out. Invisible work and the mental burden are significant challenges for all women, but they are even greater for immigrant women.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good. Thank you so much.

We'll now go into our first round of questions, starting with Ms. Wong for six minutes.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank all of the witnesses. Your testimony has brought back some memories for me, some foreign, some unforgettable from when I first arrived as an immigrant woman myself more than 40 years ago. I went through all the challenges you mentioned, such as having my foreign credentials not recognized and then having to go to UBC to finish my BA and MBA and then all the way to a Ph.D. So I've been there and done that, and I definitely understand the challenges that all of our immigrant women, no matter where they are right now, have been experiencing.

Then there is recognition; that's the most important. That is exactly why our committee is studying the unpaid work of women.

My question is addressed to all of you, actually to whomever feels comfortable answering. My riding of Richmond Centre is the most diversified. It means that we have lots more immigrants than the rest of the country does. Therefore, I have been able to meet a lot of ethnic communities.

Regarding child care, many of you did mention that there's no one model that fits all. What would you recommend having in order to provide flexibility in child care for these immigrants, especially women immigrants?

Why don't we start with Professor Aline Lechaume?