A Montreal civil rights organization says a Quebec program to recruit and train nurses from abroad is leaving some participants in desperate straits.
The Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations wants the Quebec Human Rights Commission and the provincial government to investigate the recruitment program, as some nurses recruited from West Africa say they were left destitute after being deported for failing part of the training program. They say they lost access to their weekly allowance and their part-time work as nursing assistants.
A nurse, who spoke to reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, said he worked for 10 years in his home country and left his job to bring his family to Montérégie. After failing part of the training program, he says he is now living in the most precarious situation he has had in years.
“I can’t even provide for my children,” he lamented at a press conference in Montreal. “It’s difficult because I chose to participate in this project, I had faith in this project, and now I find myself in a desperate situation.”
In 2022, the Quebec government announced a $65 million program to recruit and train 1,000 nurses from French-speaking countries to work in regions of the province where there is an acute shortage of nursing staff. Under the terms, candidates receive training at a CEGEP in their designated region, paid for by the government. They receive financial support of $500 per week, in addition to money for daycare and transportation, and can also work part-time as nursing assistants.
But Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, says at least 50 of the recruits have encountered bureaucratic obstacles or outright discrimination since arriving in Quebec. If they fail a course, he says, they are kicked out of the program and lose access to any financial support and their part-time jobs.
They’re in limbo, many of them are relying on food banks to survive, and many of them are very, very desperate.
Fo Niemi, Executive Director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations
The expelled candidates can theoretically re-enroll, Niemi explained, but they are tied to the region where they began their training. If CEGEPs in the region don’t offer courses that start before their study permits expire, they risk being expelled, he said. In the meantime, they are not allowed to find work elsewhere.
“They can’t go to another college to continue their education,” he said. “They can’t even go to McDonald’s to make hamburgers.”
He said the program’s “excessively restrictive conditions” are not fully explained to recruits before they leave their home countries, often with their families.
A second nurse at Thursday’s news conference, who has five years of experience in Ivory Coast, said it takes time to get used to Quebec’s health-care system. “There are a lot of things here in Quebec that we don’t know,” he said. “Then when you make a mistake, you get fired.”
He was kicked out of the program in Quebec’s Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, but like 10 other candidates who failed part of the program, he re-enrolled this fall. However, Niemi said the course does not yet have a professor in place.
Niemi said other recruits faced discrimination during their training, including being accused of having bad body odor. Some were offered deodorant by their supervisors in a way intended to “publicly humiliate” them, he said.
The Quebec Immigration Ministry was not immediately available for an interview Thursday.