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Citizenship and Immigration committee First, I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration for giving me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Maria Esel Panlaqui, manager of community development and special projects of TNO, or The Neighbourhood Organization. TNO is a community-b
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee —are pushed to go to immigration consultants they can't afford or trust. One of the biggest problems we see now is that while the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council can investigate its own members, it doesn't have the authority to go after non-members. Complain
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee It's hard to say. There may be some improvements, but the root cause of these consultants or recruiters treating these workers the same way is that their immigration status is precarious. They're very vulnerable. The consultants and recruiters know they won't complain. In fact, t
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee At the end of the day, we want to help our clients, the newcomers, the vulnerable and marginalized members of our society, right? These are people who are new to Canada, and most of the time they're very disconnected from their own communities. We just want to be proactive in ter
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee If I remember right, you asked me when I testified in 2017 about cases where, if we ran after one consultant, they would close down and then open another office under another name. We were wondering why they would keep doing this, because there are clients who are availing thems
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee We want status on arrival for migrant workers and also to ensure there is federal oversight, not just a separate self-regulatory body to oversee it.
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee Yes. We welcome those practices. I think we have some cases now where there was an option for the workers to be granted a temporary resident permit, TRP. If you remember, this was pilot tested in B.C., and now it's expanded in several provinces. Some of the experiences of the adv
May 6th, 2019Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee Thank you, Jennifer. For many of our migrant caregiver clients, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened their employment conditions. There continue to be many abusive and inconsiderate employers who force these workers to work long hours without compensation. Some employers do not al
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee Okay. For many of our migrant caregiver clients, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened their employment conditions. There continue to be many abusive and inconsiderate employers who force these workers to work long hours without compensation.
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee Unfortunately, I don't have a headset.
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee Definitely, yes. Thank you.
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee I can start. I think the solution really is to address the root cause. These people are suffering and experiencing so many challenges because of the precariousness of their work and because of the temporary nature of their immigration status in Canada. The solution would be to
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee Yes, it's the same thing with us. It's the precariousness of the workers' situation that makes it hard for them to assert their rights. Even with sectoral work, we would assume that there still are workers who are intimidated and scared to assert their rights and leave their empl
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee I can talk about that. I think all we have to apply here is the principle of “good enough to work” and “good enough to stay”. These workers are able to provide care and work. These requirements are additional layers of barriers that are not necessary and are definitely not conne
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui
Citizenship and Immigration committee As we mentioned, we would like to recommend for the children who are now too old to qualify that the regulation 117(9) pilot be extended and enhanced to ensure that those families are able to reunite in Canada and that there be no absolute barrier in place. Also, cases of gross m
April 12th, 2021Committee meeting
Maria Esel Panlaqui