Year: 2023
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Cynthia Palmaria was born and raised in the Philippines. When she was 11, her parents were forced by their poverty to seek caregiver work first in Spain and then in Canada. When she was 18, she and her sister finally reunited with their parents in Montreal. Palmaria studied radiation therapy, and worked as a radiation therapist in Quebec and Ontario before her family moved to Edmonton in 2013. She is a faculty service officer and lecturer in the Department of Oncology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta.
Palmaria and her husband, Marco Luciano, founded Migrante in August 2013 and served as community organizers. In her interview Palmaria explains how many members of the Temporary Foreign Worker program lose their status and become undocumented, forced to work and live without any social or labour protections. Migrante fights for permanent residency status for migrant workers. Its successes in having deportation orders reversed include Evangeline Cayanan and her daughter McKenna, and Danilo DeLeon. Palmaria places the mistreatment of migrant workers in the larger contexts of foreign, including Canadian, exploitation of Filipino mineral resources and the desire of Canadian employers for exploitable, low-wage workers without legal protections.
Keywords: Access to medical services for undocumented workers; Community organizer; Danilo de Leon; Evangeline Cayanan; Filipino community; Migrant workers; Mineral resources in Philippines; Radiation therapist; Undocumented workers.
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See also: Migrante Alberta; Systemic Racism in Alberta; Temporary Foreign Workers in Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta