National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
SIKLAB-Canada
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
Filipino Nurses Support Group – BC and Quebec

Press release

Growing Filipino community in Canada still faces major obstacles to successful integration, says advocacy group
For immediate release: January 30, 2009

While recently released statistics reveal that Filipinos are the largest source of immigrants and temporary workers for Canada combined surpassing China , national advocacy groups say Filipinos still face major barriers to their successful settlement and integration in Canada.

According to statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 19,064 Permanent Residents and 15,254 temporary workers from the Philippines arrived in Canada in 2007.  Aside from Americans, more Filipinos arrived in Canada as temporary foreign workers than any other nationality.

Organizations under the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers) Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance and the Filipino Nurses Support Group warn against the complacency that the recent announcement may create, signaling to Canadians that the Filipino community has finally reached a level of development in Canadian society.

Instead, the groups argue that the situation of Filipino-Canadians has only worsened in Canada over the last four decades and blames Philippine and Canadian government policies for the “massive exodus of Filipinos abroad to countries like Canada as sources of cheap labour.”

“In the last 40 years, more and more Filipinos have been migrating to Canada , more recently as live-in caregivers and temporary foreign workers,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada.

Since 1992, when Citizenship and Immigration Canada implemented the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement, nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada as live-in caregivers. It is estimated that 65% of the nearly 500,000 Filipinos in Canada came under the LCP.

“The Canadian government’s recent expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers program has brought more and more Filipinos to fill cheap labour needs in retail, construction, tourism, hotel and restaurant and other jobs,” says Diocson. Last year alone, Canada issued 115,470 temporary Canadian work permits.

The rapid growth of the Filipino community in Canada within the last 10 years (reports say the number has doubled) makes Filipinos the third largest visible minority group in Canada (after the Chinese and Indo-Canadians) at an estimated 500,000 Filipinos. Organizations say the exodus of Philippine workers is due to the continual and worsening social and economic crisis in the Philippines whose Labor Export Program has resulted in 1/10 of the Philippine population living and working abroad. There are an estimated 7 million Overseas Filipino Workers in 168 countries around the world. The Philippine economy is dependent on the some $13 billion USD in annual remittances of overseas workers.

The forced migration of Filipinos abroad in search of a better life is taken advantage of by countries like Canada who seek to fill cheap labour needs with an aging population and negative population growth rate.

“We counter recent media reports which state that Filipinos ‘are too busy working’ to care or get involved in politics unless they have been here a long time,” says Diocson. She cites the November 2008 national conference, “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards Full Participation in a Multicultural and Multi-Ethnic Canada” at the University of Toronto which gathered over 120 participants from across Canada to identify and challenge the systemic barriers that the Filipino community face in their successful integration and settlement in Canada.

“The conference was a striking example of the interest and enthusiasm of Filipino women, migrant workers, youth and immigrants who take a keen interest in politics towards increased participation of Filipinos in the economic, political, social and cultural life of Canada,” says Diocson.

“It is not that Filipinos do not care about politics, yet many are struggling for daily survival to become actively involved in organizations,” says Diocson. “Many Filipinos however do recognize that their individual hardships are reflective of our overall community’s severe economic and social marginalization in Canada ,” she says.

The groups also criticized the Canadian government and so-called ‘experts’ lack of critical analysis or understanding of Canadian laws and policies. They cited BC Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism and Attorney General Wally Oppal who stated in a CBC radio report that the relationship between BC and the Philippines was a ‘mutually beneficial relationship’ and that Filipinos are coming to BC as professionals including nurses. According to the groups, since Filipino professionals began migrating in the late 1960s the majority have not been able to accredit their professional educations and work experience once in Canada due to “systemic and racist barriers.”

“Professionals must either undergo lengthy and costly accreditation processes or return to school,” says Diocson. “For example, nurses are not granted any occupational points under Canada’s immigration system, which is why many Filipino nurses are trapped in the Live-in Caregiver Program and face a stalled development in Canada,” she adds.

Diocson says that although the rapid growth of the community poses many challenges, she says she is optimistic that the Filipino community will one day reach its fullest potential in Canada . “We look particularly to the Filipino youth to continue on our community’s struggle towards our genuine equality, and development in Canada ,” she says.

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For more information, please contact:

Toronto

Magkaisa Centre
1093 Davenport Road
Toronto , ON M6G 2C3
Website: www.magkaisacentre.org
E-mail: pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org

Phone: Joy Sioson, Chairperson Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
(415) 519-2553

Vancouver

Kalayaan Centre
451 Powell Street Vancouver ,
BC V6A 1G7
Website: www.kalayaancentre.net
E-mail: pwc@kalayaancentre.net

Phone: Leah Diana, Executive Director, Philippine Women Centre of BC
(604) 215-1103

Montreal

Kapit Bisig Centre
4900 Rue Fulton
Montreal , QC H3W 1V4
E-mail: pwcofquebec@gmail.com

Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) Member of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) Telephone: 416-878-8772