Global Care Chains, Employment Agencies and the Conundrum of Jurisdiction : Decent Work for Domestic Workers in Canada

Transnational migrant domestic workers who perform work on a live-in basis in Canadian homes cross a number of jurisdictional boundaries – between different nation states, different areas of law, and different levels of government within a nation. This “transgression” makes it difficult to govern these workers in a manner that provides decent work. The goal of this article is twofold: first, to explain how the movement of transnational migrant workers across a number of nested jurisdictional boundaries makes them susceptible to being exploited; and second, by focusing on the role of the transnational intermediary – the broker or employment agency that places domestic workers across national boundaries to live and work in the homes of Canadian families – to show how it is possible to overcome some of these jurisdictional conundrums. The article begins with a discussion of the key concepts – global care chain and jurisdiction – that are used to examine Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program and the regulation of employment agencies in British Columbia in order to illustrate how the jurisdictional conundrum creates problems for achieving decent work for domestic workers. It concludes by suggesting some ways to resolve the jurisidictional conundrum and, drawing upon existing Canadian models, sketches some techniques to regulate employment agencies with the goal of promoting decent work for migrant domestic workers