This week, we’ve been reading through three new reports by the US aged care peak body LeadingAge on the benefits and challenges of foreign-born aged care workers – and there are some interesting insights.
Their year-long research, which looked at providers across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the US, found foreign-born nurses and personal care workers are a viable solution to the staffing crisis there – but more needs to be done to help providers attract staff from overseas.
As we mentioned here, foreign-born staff make up around a third of our aged care workers, but Australia’s migrant intake has dropped to its lowest level in seven years.
Our workforce needs are also increasing, with predictions that we will need nearly one million workers by 2050 – a figure we are unlikely to meet without Government intervention.
While Australia has offered permanent residency to some aged care workers, they are often excluded from immigration policies and providers aren’t allowed to directly recruit workers from overseas.
Reaching a crisis point
Melbourne-based Fronditha Care is the only provider we know which has negotiated a deal with the Federal Government to bring out bilingual workers from Greece to work at its five facilities this year – the second time they have done so.
However other countries do have policies that specifically target aged care workers. For example, Italy excludes nurses from its migrant quota while the UK recognises aged care as an occupation with serious shortages, giving overseas applicants easier access to jobs.
In Canada, workers can apply to become permanent residents if they do two years of live-in care work within three years of their arrival.
LeadingAge does offer several steps that countries can take to ‘prime’ their foreign-born worker pipeline, such as setting up a registry to check the trustworthiness of potential employers and employees, and having procedures in place to protect workers, providers and residents.
It has to happen. The fact is there will be more people who need care as our population ages – and fewer workers to provide it.
And as the report concludes, most common fears about hiring foreign-born workers are unwarranted, and most workers take pride in their work and want to do it well.
Aren’t these the kind of workers that we want caring for our loved ones?
