"In 2018, the caregiver who asked to be identified as Bella arrived in Los Angeles on a tourist visa. She imagined herself working in healthcare facilities tucked in verdant hills or in beach communities. Instead, Bella, 57, said she landed in a shadow network of home healthcare jobs. She was shuttled among multiple facilities to avoid compliance checks and paid a fraction of a living wage."
"In Filipino culture, the concept of utang na loob, or a deep-seated sense of obligation to repay kindness, kept Bella tied to the family that she said ultimately exploited her labor and left her undocumented in the US. To break free, Bella lived in a church for months. Many in the same situation fall deeper into the cracks of a system ripe for abuse, but Bella eventually joined a workers' rights group that provided immigration and social services."
Bella, a 57-year-old Filipino caregiver, arrived in Los Angeles in 2018 on a tourist visa expecting stable healthcare work. Family members who recruited her promised housing and steady employment but placed her in a shadow network of home-care jobs. Employers shuttled her between facilities to evade compliance checks and paid meager sums, including a job that paid $30 a day for 24-hour care. Cultural obligation, utang na loob, initially prevented her from leaving. She lived in a church to escape, later joined a workers' rights group for services, and now works part-time as an independent caregiver, facing continual immigration-related fear.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]