Filipina mother denied permanent residency due to deaf daughter

Filipina caregiver Karen Talosig and daughter Jazmine (Photo screengrab from CBC News report)

According to the final decision of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Filipina caregiver Karen Talosig, 38, is not eligible to a Canadian permanent residency status because she has an ‘inadmissible’ deaf daughter.

Talosig has worked as a caregiver in Vancouver, Canada since 2008. She then started to work for a Kitsilano resident Helene Whitefield in 2009.

After three years of working in the country, Talosig filed an application for a permanent residency status for herself and her daughter, disclosing the latter’s health condition.

After waiting for four years, Talosig has been informed, however, that her 14-year-old daughter Jazmine would be a financial burden to the public system as she would cost the government $91,000 to fund for her special education over five years.

“It’s really hard to be apart from her. It’s so frustrating that I’ve been waiting for this long already… It’s heartbreaking, to be honest. But I have to deal with it because I came here for her, for her future. It’s really, really hard, but I have to be tough for her,” Talosig said.

British Columbia’s (B.C.) education ministry saw Jazmine’s special education as a dilemma since school districts were only allotted up to $18,300 budget per deaf student per year, amounting to $91,500 budget for five years.

Since Jazmine would cost the government more than $6,327 a year, she is considered ‘inadmissible’ on medical grounds.

Talosig, for her part, pledged that her daughter would not be a burden to Canadian taxpayers.

She currently has three jobs and sends $1,000 per month to her daughter back in the Philippines.

“She is my daughter and I will support her… I know she’s deaf but she’s very smart and by the time she’s an adult, she’ll take care of herself. She won’t be a burden at all,” Talosig asserted.

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada, however, is firm on its decision to deny.

Despite the immigration’s final decision, several district schools for the deaf has shown support to Talosig and her daughter.  Jazmine has even been already accepted at a school in Burnaby, B.C. as she has been a consistent honor student in the school she attends in the Philippines.

Filipino-Canadian supporters also believed that change is still possible. They have then started a petition asking Immigration Minister Chris Alexander to reverse the decision.

To help Talosig and her daughter, sign the petition at:

Ask Immigration Minister Chris Alexander to Reverse Decision Made Regarding DEAF Child!