Canada is one of the preferred countries of destination for Filipinos aiming to work and live abroad. But life for migrant workers and overseas Filipinos is not all that rosy in the “Land of the Free,” a motto coined and patented by Canada.
BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat
Canada is one of the preferred countries of destination for Filipinos aiming to work and live abroad. But life for migrant workers and overseas Filipinos is not all that rosy in the “Land of the Free,” a motto coined and patented by Canada.
Bulatlat interviewed Filipino-Canadians, who participated in a fact-finding mission that investigated the unabated political killings in the country, about their lives in Canada. This is what they revealed.
Filipinos in Canada
The second largest country in the world after Russia, Canada is a favored destination of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). In fact, government data showed that Canada is the tenth highest source of OFW remittances in 2005, amounting to $117.06 million.
The first Filipino immigrant to Canada entered the country in 1931. But compared to the United States, Filipino migration to Canada is a more recent phenomenon.
Only when its policy of exclusion of non-whites from the mainstream population was formally dropped in 1962, and flexible immigration policies were adopted in response to the growing demand for skilled labor, did Canada open up to migrants from other countries. Most of the Filipinos who took the chance to work in Canada are nurses, laboratory technicians, office workers, and a few doctors. Majority of nurses working there now came from the United States. When their work visas in the United States expired, they transferred to Canada.
In the late 1970s, a large number of sponsored relatives arrived under the family reunification program, including Filipino senior citizens. Filipino parents in their fifties and sixties were sponsored by their children living in Canada. In the 1980s, most Filipinos who entered Canada were live-in caregivers. By the next decade, there was a steady influx of independent immigrants and an increase in investors and entrepreneurs entering the country.
Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) shows that the number of OFWs going to Canada grew by 13.3 percent, or a total of 4, 006 in 2003 from 3,532 the previous year.
The burgeoning Filipino community in Canada is among the largest. Filipinos are considered a visible minority population distinct from other Southeast Asian groupings.
At present, the Philippine Embassy in Canada estimates that there are around 400,000 Filipinos staying there. Of this number, 36,922 are classified as permanent overseas Filipinos (OFs) who are degree holders and are working there as professionals.
Filipino organizing
With their growing number in Canada, Filipinos saw the need to organize themselves and fight for their welfare.
Cecilia Diocson first arrived in Canada in 1975 as a nurse. She may sound like a Canadian now but she has not forgotten the Ilonggo language (one of the languages spoken in the Negros and Panay islands in central Philippines). She still speaks Ilonggo fluently.
Diocson, originally from Sagay, Negros Occidental, is one of the pillars of Filipino organizing in Canada.
In the 1980’s, the Philippine Women Center (PWC) of British Columbia (BC), and the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) were formed from the first solidarity formation under the Centre for Philippine Concerns.
The creation of sectoral organizations followed with the formation of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA), Sulong Itaguyod ang Karapatan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa (SIKLAB or Onwards, Promote the Rights of Filipino Workers Abroad), the Filipino Nurses Support Group (FNSG).
The campaigns conducted by Filipino-Canadians led to the creation of the Kalayaan Resource and Training Centre (KRTC), a community-based, non-profit organization that provides comprehensive research, resources and skills training to enable Filipino-Canadians to be socially active, and the Filipino-Canadians against Racism (Fil-CAR), a community-based group that educates, organizes and mobilizes against systemic racism faced daily by Filipino-Canadians.
