Many N.S. immigrant women suffered due to jobs they held during COVID-19: report

HALIFAX — Immigrant and migrant women in Nova Scotia, who were an important part of the essential worker labour force during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, suffered physically and mentally from their jobs and continue to struggle, says a new report.

Researchers behind the study released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives interviewed 27 newcomer women who worked in sectors like food service, cleaning, grocery and caregiving between 2020 and 2022 in Nova Scotia. Most of the women interviewed said they had experienced extreme stress at work and were struggling to get back on their feet, the study said.

“They have not recovered from the pandemic, they are still struggling to make ends meet. And for some of them it’s worsened,” report co-author Catherine Bryan said in an interview Tuesday.

The study is described as a detailed look at the experiences of migrant and immigrant women’s working conditions in low-wage essential sectors in Nova Scotia before, during, and after the most acute periods of the pandemic. Interviews were conducted between 2022 and 2023, during which time many of the women who participated in the study said they were still working in precarious or low-paying jobs.

Bryan said that while labour data is scarce for immigrants and migrants (people working in a place where they have not settled), her research indicates there was a high number of newcomer women in essential jobs during the pandemic in Nova Scotia. The majority of those interviewed reported working low-paying jobs that were not aligned with their credentials.

“This reflects a labour market that sees women, particularly racialized women, often limited to low-wage jobs despite impressive educational credentials from their home country,” Bryan said.

“These women were highly qualified, extremely well-trained people with a considerable depth of expertise in their areas of training and education … they’re still largely excluded from better-paid, more secure, less-precarious employment and relegated to food, retail, and the lower echelons of care work.”

Bryan, a Dalhousie University associate professor of social work, said these jobs put the women at a higher risk than the general public of contracting COVID-19 and forced them to enforce health orders, such as indoor masking and physical distancing.

The women interviewed for the study described the challenge of enforcing COVID-19 restrictions on the job, which they said sometimes resulted in violent or angry outbursts from the public.

“Part of why this work took such a toll was because they had to manage the stress, the anxiety, the anger, the frustration of the people that they were interacting with … they were responsible for making sure that people were abiding by public health measures,” Bryan said.

The report comes with 16 recommendations that touch on immigration, labour and mental health access, and they urge governments to better support working migrant and immigrant women. 

The recommendations include decreasing the time it takes for international credentials to be recognized in Nova Scotia, offering permanent residency to all migrant workers, and strengthening labour standards to better protect their health and safety, which the report said must include ensuring all workers have paid sick leave.

Nova Scotia’s minister of labour, skills and immigration said in a statement Wednesday the department has just received the report and is reviewing it.

“We want women and all people to feel welcome and safe in Nova Scotia workplaces,” Jill Balser said in an email. “They provide important skills and services we need in our labour market and in our communities. We will take these findings seriously and find ways to make improvements.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2024.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press