Project Overview - Migrant Care Worker Precarity Project

Migrant care workers — especially racialized women — have experienced precarious status and unclear futures in Canada for decades. Permanent residency upon arrival has long been a demand by care worker activists and advocates.

The Migrant Care Worker Precarity Project, convened by Cenen Bagon, co-founder of the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers’ and Caregivers’ Rights (CDWCR), investigates Canada’s changing migrant care worker programs, including the implementation of the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker Pilots by IRCC in 2019. As the 5-year term of these pilot programs ended in June 2024, the project seeks to understand care workers’ experiences under these programs and how previous and upcoming policy changes shape their futures. It aims to influence positive changes for care workers, including amplifying the long-standing call for status for all.

The MCWP Team

Cenen Bagon, Co-founder, Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights
Rincy Calamba, MA, Simon Fraser University
Kassandra Cordero, Director, Equity and Human Rights, BC Federation of Labour
Dr. Alicia Massie, Director of Organizing, BC Federation of Labour
Dr. Anita Minh, Assistant Professor, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health
Dr. Jennifer E. Shaw, Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University
Alice Mũrage (Former; 2023-2025), PhD Student, Simon Fraser University
Noemi Rosario Martinez (Former; 2023-2025), MA, Simon Fraser University

Read team bios here

READ OUR NEW POLICY BRIEF HERE:

Urgencies Surrounding the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot Program. 2026. Jennifer E. Shaw, Alicia Massie, Anita Minh, Cenen Bagon, and Rincy Dominic C. Calamba.

Other Publications

Failing to Care for Care Workers: Structural Perspectives on Precarious Employment and Health of Migrant Women Performing In-Home Care Work in Canada. 2026. Anita Minh, Jennifer E. Shaw, Alicia Massie, Alice Mũrage, Ethel Tungohan, Kassandra Cordero, Rincy Calamba, Noemi Rosario Martinez and Cenen Bagon. In Occupational Health in a New World of Work. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences. Springer.

“When we fight, we win”: migrant domestic worker organizing and engaged intersectional research in Canada. 2026. Jennifer E. Shaw, Anita Minh, Alicia Massie, Cenen Bagon, Kassandra Cordero, Alice Mũrage, Rincy Dominic C. Calamba, Noemi Rosario Martinez. 2026. International Feminist Journal of Politics 28 (1): 202–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2610234.

A Decade of Migrant Care Worker Programs: Addressing Racism and Precarity in Canada. 2024. Cenen Bagon, Rincy Dominic Calamba, Kassandra Cordero, Alicia Massie, Anita Minh, Alice Mũrage, Noemi Rosario Martinez, and Jennifer E. Shaw. Co-produced and published with the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-BC Office, and the BC Federation of Labour.

Ensuring the Success of the New Care Worker Pilots: Applying Lessons from the Past. 2024. Jennifer E. Shaw, Anita Minh, Alicia Massie, Ethel Tungohan, Rupa Banerjee, and the Migrant Care Worker Precarity Project Team. The Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration (CERC Migration) Policy Brief 22, Toronto Metropolitan University.

Canada’s new care worker immigration programs need faster processing times to keep families together. 2024. Alicia Massie, Anita Minh and Jennifer E. Shaw. The Conversation.

Canada’s Broken Promises to Migrant Care Workers—More Pilot Programs Not a Solution. 2024. Alicia Massie, Anita Minh and Jennifer E. Shaw, Policy Note.