France: Nannies Flex Their Muscles

From the New York Times:

A stroll through any Paris neighborhood will bear out a trend that has already made it into official statistics. More and more foreign-born women are pushing the baby strollers, caring for the bedridden, ironing the shirts. With an aging population, and one of the European Union’s highest birthrates, France needs help at home, particularly as budget cuts take a bite out of social services.

Meanwhile, at a time of economic slowdown, more immigrant women are willing to take jobs to help lift the income of their own families.

“These may not be beautiful jobs, but they are jobs that are in demand, and we have identified an increasing number of women willing to do them,” said Jean-Pierre Garson, head of the international migration unit at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris.

According to the O.E.C.D.’s latest migration report, the employment rate for foreign-born women in France has risen steadily in the past decade — from 44.2 percent in 1995 to 52.3 percent in 2008.

Canada: Women in Need House III

From the Edmonton Journal:

Located inside a hidden, highly secured Edmonton-area home, WIN III is the only shelter in the country specifically designed for immigrant women fleeing domestic violence.

The five-bedroom home, which can house two families or four women at a time, is the brainchild of Edmonton Women's Shelter Ltd., operated by Changing Together, a local centre for immigrant women, and staff say it's been full since they opened three months ago.

"To see women who thought they had no place to go come in and say 'Thank you for accepting me' -- that's the moment you know this project is important to our community," explains Sandra Danco, Edmonton Women's Shelter director.

Edmonton is home to more than 143,000 immigrants, just over half of them female. The United Way says one in 10 immigrant women in Canada is a victim of violence.

Canada: Minority Women & Health

From UPI:

Immigrant women -- especially South Asian, West Asian or Arab women -- say they have trouble accessing healthcare in Canada, researchers found.

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences found more than 50 percent of South Asian, West Asian or Arab adults say they were not very satisfied with their ability to get an appointment with a doctor for a regular checkup.

Nearly 40 percent of East and Southeast Asian and 34 percent of Aboriginal adults reported having difficulties when accessing a specialist compared with 22 percent of white Ontario residents.

The study also found that 15 percent of Canadian immigrants for less than five years do not have a primary care doctor, compared to 7.3 percent of Canadian-born men and women who say they don't have primary care doctor.

Female Immigrants: Keeping Families Together

From Yahoo News:

The story of migration is no longer a man's story. It is increasingly becoming a woman's tale, according to "Women Immigrants: Stewards of the 21st Century," a new poll by New America Media. Immigrant women are taking charge in keeping their families together. At a time when more than one-third of families in the United States are single-parent households, 90 percent of women immigrants interviewed report that their families are intact, writes NAM Executive Director Sandy Close.