CEBU, Philippines - Filipinos staying and working in Canada is expected to hit the million mark by 2025. This as Canada is still experiencing labor shortage and is looking forward to host more Filipinos to migrate to the Maple country.
Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder said that of the over 800 thousand Filipinos currently staying in Canada, at least 200 thousand more will be given the opportunity to have Canada as their second home.
He said the number of Filipinos migrating to Canada has picked up in the past five years.
"We estimate that there will be a million Filipinos migrating to Canada by 2025,” Reeder said.
Since 1960s and 1970s, Canada has enjoyed the flow of Filipino migrants. Today, with the increasing demand for more professionals and blue-collar jobs, the Ambassador said Canada is looking at attracting more Filipinos to fill in the labor shortage.
"Both countries enjoy very important people-to-people linkages, built up over decades of immigration, travel and study,” the Ambassador said.
He added that Canada continues to be an important destination for Filipinos wishing to migrate and live in Canada permanently, work on a temporary basis or to study.
“In fact, ours is the second busiest Canadian visa office in the world,” Reeder said referring to the Canadian Embassy in Manila.
As of 2012, the Canadian Embassy has issued permanent resident visas to nearly 33,000 Filipinos, over 8,000 temporary foreign worker visas, and over 31,000 temporary resident or visitor visas.
An estimated 800,000 Canadians are of Filipino origin and Tagalog is the fastest-growing language group in Canada, he said.
A huge concentration of Filipino immigrants reside in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal.
Last March 6, the Canadian Embassy announced an additional 40 more job categories under the Nova Scotia Provincial Nominee Program. This, on top of 24 job categories already prioritized under the Federal Skilled Occupancy program.
The opening of the Nova Scotia Nominee Program, under the regional labor market demand stream, would heighten the possibilities of more Filipinos to get Visa to Canada, as requirements are being loosen to invite highly skilled professionals to work in Nova Scotia.
Under the Provincial Nominee Program of Nova Scotia, one of Canada’s three maritime provinces and constitute one of the four Atlantic Canada provinces, now added 40 more categories in the job market, these include, among others engineers, hospitality workers, healthcare professionals, construction workers, computer technicians, mechanics, welders, automotive service providers, crane operators, truck and bus mechanics, industrial electricians, heavy duty equipment mechanics, machine related operators, among others.
Meanwhile, the Ambassador announced that the Embassy is currently processing 400 applications from identified typhoon Yolanda victims, of which applications are being expedited.
He said this is one of Canada's humanitarian gestures on top of the 160 million (Canadian dollar) help given to the Philippines for the typhoon stricken communities for shelter, livelihood, agriculture, among others. (FREEMAN)