MIGRANT
WATCH
Canada, Not All ‘Rosy’ for
Filipino Migrants
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.
Aside from labor and immigration issues,
these organizations, Diocson said, also campaign for national freedom and
democracy in the Philippines.
Filipino
organizations in Canada have four areas of concerns: economic
marginalization; systemic racism; sectoral issues; and the youth.
Filipino organizers
go to different Filipino communities within Canada where they gather and
share experiences, and conduct studies and campaigns on issues facing
Filipinos.
Through their
outreach efforts, these organizations were able to help Filipinos who
could not exercise their professions or are being abused by their
employers. For example, nurses have to wait for at least a year to be
accredited. Others are subjected to
deprofessionalization like engineers who are categorized and hired as
engineer technicians.
“Nasaan ang mga
Pilipino? You go to the malls, naglilinis o nasa delivery”
(Where are the Filipinos? You go to the malls and they are there cleaning
or doing deliveries.), said the concerned organizer. “Sa ospital, nasa
housekeeping o laundry department.” (In hospitals they are in
housekeeping or in the laundry department.)
Diocson said that
Filipinos are among the first to lose their jobs during lay offs because
they are in the bottom rung of jobs. She said that during the
privatization of the health care system in 2000 called regionalization,
several Filipino workers were laid off.
The laid-off
employees were forced to seek the help of agencies to deploy them to other
hospitals or other companies even in
low-paying jobs.
Worse, Diocson said,
is the effect of the lowering economic status of Filipino parents on their
children who are also in Canada.
Diocson said there is
a disturbing trend of Filipino youth dropping out of school. She said that
many children of Filipino domestic workers were forced to drop out of high
school after their parents ended up working in lower-paying jobs.
Children, she added, are also not exempt from racial profiling by the
police and the racism of Canadian youth. Studies conducted by the UKPC
revealed that drop out rates of Filipino-Canadian children are high in
Vancouver, Quebec, Montreal, and BC.
As a result, she
said, out-of-school youth tend to join gangs that are prone to trouble.
Live-in caregivers
A high percentage of
Filipino contract workers who came as domestic workers, called
live-in caregivers, in the 1980s became immigrants after two years as
overseas contract workers (OCWs).
About 70 percent of
these workers are women. Thus, there arose a need to organize on the basis
of women migrant issues.
Diocson said live-in
caregivers are not covered by the Labor Protection Act. They were covered
by the Employment Standard Act only in 1995.
Worse off are
Filipino live-in caregivers who entered Canada under the Live-in Caregiver
Program (LCP). In 2003 alone, 1, 811 Filipino caregivers entered Canada.
Because of this, Diocson said, Filipinos already constitute the majority
of temporary workers in Canada.
Introduced in 1992,
the LCP is a federal program that allows the recruitment of foreign
nationals to work in Canada as live-in caregivers. It is part of Canada’s
immigration policy that aims to fill up the acute shortage of domestic
workers and to provide childcare alternatives for well-off Canadian
families. Under the LCP, live-in caregivers provide childcare, senior home
support care, or care of the disabled in private homes.
The LCP’s two
provisions - the mandatory live-in requirement and temporary immigration
status - are “the seeds that bring forth numerous cases of abuse,
exploitation and violations on the rights of caregivers,” said Diocson who
chairs the NAPWC.
Immigration
problems
Filipinos face not
only work-related problems but also immigration issues.
Live-in caregivers
are subject to arbitrary and
unjust deportation for failure to complete the requirements of the LCP,
which includes 24 months of live-in work within three years upon entering
Canada. Those who entered Canada under the LCP can apply for immigrant
status only after three years.
In some cases,
Diocson added, those facing deportation are given an extension of their
working visas under the temporary worker program. But under the latter
program, they could not apply for permanent residency.
A migrant worker
served with a deportation notice should leave the country within a month.
Because some have debts in the Philippines and have not yet saved money,
Diocson said, they go into hiding and work as illegal aliens. They survive
by working in the “underground economy” as baby sitters or domestic
cleaners, she said.
“Now, we are feeling
the trauma of migration,” she said. “In the 70’s, there were a lot of jobs
available even for migrant workers. But because of neoliberal
globalization, there were retrenchments even in Canada leading to more
competition for jobs. Thus, Filipinos and other migrant workers are
relegated to low-paying jobs.”
Government neglect
In organizing fellow
Filipinos in Canada, Diocson said it is not enough to just tell them what
to do to solve their problems.
“When we talk to
them, we don’t just explain the rights of live-in caregivers and migrant
workers in Canada but we explain the roots of migration, the economics and
politics of it,” said Diocson. “We explain to them the reasons behind the
labor-export policy of the Philippines, tracing the root cause to the
socio-economic and political problems besetting the country; why Filipinos
had to work abroad to earn a decent income; and why Canada needs our cheap
labor,” Diocson said
Being the main force
that keeps the Philippines’ ailing economy afloat, migrant workers are
regarded as “modern-day heroes” by the Philippine government.
But the government
does not match the adulation it confers on OFWs with deeds, Diocson said.
“The OFWs toil as modern-day
slaves abandoned by their government,” said Diocson
“Numbers lang ang
tingin sa amin,” (We are just being viewed as numbers.) she lamented
She also criticized
the Philippine Consulate for not setting a shelter to accommodate domestic
workers running away from abusive employers. She stressed that trade and
investment promotion continues to be the primary concern of Philippine
officials in Canada.
“Ang
role lang naman ng Philippine Embassy ay mangolekta ng pera,”
(The only role of the Philippine Embassy is to collect money from OFWs.)
she said. “They are not really interested in the conditions of the
Filipino workers. Wala pa akong nakitang consulate with services
except renewal and validating of passports,” (I have not seen a consulate
with services except renewal and validating of passports.) she added.
Diocson also said
they have cases of OFWs seeking the help of Filipino organizations after
being denied assistance by the Philippine embassy.
One successful
campaign that Filipino organizations conducted was against the deportation
of Laila Ilumbra in 2004. Ilumbra was given a deportation notice after
failing to complete the required 24 months of live-in work. But she was
not able to complete the requirement because she was ill then and was in a
coma for four months.
“If they deported
this person, it shows that Canada has no soul,” Diocson said.
After they have
lobbied before the Canadian government, Ilumbra was allowed to stay in
Canada for humanitarian considerations. At present, Diocson said, Ilumbra
is undergoing rehabilitation and has been getting medical assistance, free
of charge from the Quebec local government. Diocson scored the Philippine
Consulate for not giving Ilumbra the $6,000 assistance it promised.
She also said that
instead of helping OFWs facing deportation, the Philippine Consulate even
encourages them to avail of voluntary deportation so that the host
government would shoulder the transportation costs.
“The only
responsibility they take is to secure the plane ticket!” she said, “(After
all), they have collected their money already.”
Hopes and
realities of home
Although they have
left the country several decades ago, they never lose hope that they would
eventually go back home.
To facilitate the
process of reintegration into Philippine society, Filipino groups in
Canada implement a program that sends Filipino-Canadians to the
Philippines for six months of integration/exposure.
“Sino ba ang ayaw
bumalik sa sarili n’yang bansa?” she asked, “Pero dahil sa mahirap
ang buhay sa Pilipinas, kailangang marami-rami ka na ring naipon para
mabuhay sa pagbalik mo.” (Who does not want to return to his/her own
country? But because of the difficulties of earning a living in the
Philippines, one needs to have a lot of savings to be able to live a
decent life when one returns.)
Diocson said that her
two children, who were born in Canada, had their integration in the
Philippines. She related that they had a positive experience. But they
also realized that earning a decent living is difficult in the
Philippines.
But Diocson assured
that even as they are miles away from their native land, they will still
respond to the “call of service, the call for change.” Bulatlat
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