Katherine Chan hired maids from the Philippines to do her housework when she lived in Hong Kong more than 10 years ago. At the time, she was running three companies in the refrigeration and air-conditioning business and, like many Hong Kong professionals, she relied on servants from the developing country to take care of her domestic chores.
Now retired and living in Canada, Ms Chan has again hired a live-in helper from the Philippines to work at her spacious Vancouver home. Her employee, Ledimar Bautista, 45, takes care of the cleaning, tends to her yard and looks after her 85-year-old mother, Yuen Chan.
'He's useful just being here around the house and taking care of my mom,' Ms Chan says. 'I feel better that there is somebody in the house because [otherwise] it's just the two of us.'
As the wave of Hong Kong immigrants who went to Vancouver in the 1980s and early 1990s grow older, many, like Ms Chan's mother, need help with their daily lives. But since most are reluctant to move into senior care facilities, a growing number are importing Filipino caregivers.
It's an arrangement that both employer and employee are accustomed to. Hong Kong residents have long hired domestic help from the Philippines. Now they are bringing the practice to Canada.
Like Mr Bautista, thousands of Filipino workers are employed in Canada under the Live-In Caregiver Programme, a controversial government initiative that allows foreign caregivers to handle full-time home support. After two years, workers may apply for permanent resident status to stay on in the country.