I have simple needs, and I've never paid
too much attention to money, unless I was thinking of spending it. Until today.
One of my part-time jobs is coordinating
activities for foreign live-in caregivers (LICs) and temporary foreign workers
(TFWs) for a non-profit organization. I help plan educational workshops, organize
sports competitions, fundraising and other group events, all of these tailored to arm the workers with tools to adjust seamlessly to their new environment. These
activities also help provide newcomers with a sense of belonging to a
community, a sort of family away from their families.
Getting twenty or more foreign live-in
caregivers in one room for two hours on a Saturday, however, is not an easy
job. These men and women are the
hardest-working people I know, and most of them are out on weekends, working
part time to make extra money to send home to their families. Money to educate
their kids, pay their rents or mortgages, or support aging parents. Sometimes
they get so caught up in making money because the need is too great, that two
things get neglected: their health and their own financial future. Many of
these workers have no savings nor insurance, the importance of which only gets
noted when the ability to work and earn money fails.
I know because I've seen it happening and I've been part of the community that helped raise funds for a few
unfortunate members of this group, those who might have suffered a severe or fatal
illness, and those who passed away. With no money for expenses or repatriation
of their remains, it becomes the community's job to help finance their hospitalization or repatriation.
In response to these circumstances, I
organize workshops that encourage them to put away some earnings for such a
rainy day, or buy insurance to fall back on in cases of illness or death.
Morbid but practical.
My boss, the president of the non-profit
group that I work for, is very passionate about getting LICs and TFWs to
upgrade their skills and become financially independent. He believes that financial security is the number one reason why everybody comes to
Canada. To help make things easier for some of these people, my group worked
with a school to get our members discounted tuition fees, and with a bank to
get them low-interest caregiver education loans. We invited representatives
from both the school and the bank to give talks and answer everyone’s questions
about how these deals work. The first batch of our students graduated last
August. A new batch are in the process of enrolling.
The school director called me recently to
say that out of twelve enrolees, six had pulled out. They told her they’d changed
their minds. We needed twelve students to proceed with the weekend curriculum that the
school had specially set up for them.
A few days ago, the bank officer in-charge
of releasing caregiver loans took me aside and told me in a grim and urgent
tone: “We need to have one of those financial literacy workshops really soon.
We have to get the newcomers as early as we can, before they can develop some
bad spending habits.”
Apparently, he had declined the application
of five of the caregivers we sent him for educational loans. The applicants
whose names he kept confidential, already have incurred too much debt, even before they've become landed immigrants. Now I know why they cancelled
their enrolment.
O the perils and pitfalls of easy credit.
The intense attraction of acquiring material things. The joys of shopping for
what my boss calls ‘anik-aniks’ (shiny, expensive, but ultimately
useless items). And the guilt that comes from denying your relatives back home
what they ask for, when you yourself live in a country of plenty. Those are the
hurdles one has to get over, to achieve financial security in a new country.
First and foremost, my banker wants to
address the danger of credit cards and bad borrowing habits, because he
understands how easy it is to get mired in debt if one isn't careful.
“Letting them hear how credit cards really
work will make them think twice before acquiring one,” says my banker friend. I
totally agree with him. I’m already planning that financial literacy workshop as
we speak.
(Previously published at the Mill Woods Mosaic, September 2013)
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