Western Canada, hungry for workers in the construction, medical and hospitality industries, is looking for 30,000 skilled Filipinos to fill jobs in 2008.

Jose S. Brillantes, the Philippines ambassador in Ottawa, said his overseas officers at Canadian consulates in The Philippines are preparing for the expected influx of Filipino workers this year.

Brillantes told The Asian Pacific Post in an interview that Philippines consulate offices in
Canada are conducting “verification process” exercises to ensure that Filipino workers don’t fall victim to bogus job offers.

“Although such illegal activities are so far not prevalent in Canada, we have to be vigilant to prevent such occurrences,” said Brillantes.

“The process is also designed to prevent Filipino professionals ending up in jobs far below their educational qualifications, skills and experience.”

The ambassador also told The Asian Pacific Post that a Philippines labor office will be established in Vancouver to streamline the hiring process for new workers and provide “on-site” assistance to Filipino migrant workers in British Columbia and neighboring provinces.

Brillantes said skilled Filipino workers are ready to take advantage of the job opportunities in preparation for the 2010 Olympics, which will be held in Vancouver, Whistler and municipalities throughout Metro Vancouver.

B.C. is now experiencing record employment levels of 63.9 per cent, and the shortage of skilled labour is hindering growth.

Several construction projects, like the Cloverdale Trades and Technology Centre at Kwantlen University, have had their openings delayed due to a shortage of trades people.

Carmilita Dimzon, deputy administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), said in Manila that skilled Filipino workers are needed in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Among those professional workers needed in Canada are: Hospital nurses, health workers, mechanical and electrical engineers, and hotel and restaurant personnel in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Ambassador Brillantes said POEA administrator Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz and Marianito D. Roque, administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), a government agency tasked to protect and promote the welfare and well-being of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and their dependents, recently visited Western Canadian provinces to assess the job opportunities.

The Philippines is one of the biggest exporters of skilled and unskilled labor in the world.
The Southeast Asian nation deployed more than one million overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, to 160 host destinations last year, most of them in medical and health, information and technology, and the services sectors.

About eight million Filipinos, or 10 per cent of the population, are working abroad while their remittances last year were estimated at more than 10 billion U.S. dollars, or 10 per cent of GDP.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye said that 2008 would be another banner year for OFWs, marked by increased job opportunities and higher wages.

In his weekly column The View From the Palace, Bunye based his prediction on the shifting employment profile of Filipino migrant workers from non-skilled to skilled.

He said that unlike in previous years, most OFWs leaving the country now are professional or skilled workers.

“In 2006, 60 per cent of Filipinos working abroad were professionals and skilled workers. In 2007, the deployment ratio became 73-27 in favor of skilled workers,” Bunye said.

He described this change in the employment pattern of OFWs over the last two years as no less than dramatic.

“This explains why despite the constant level of deployment, foreign exchange remittances has been increasing,” he added.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said the country’s track record of sending one million OFWs workers abroad in the past two years would be topped this year to help the struggling Philippines’ economy recover.

He pointed out that although it is not a policy of the government to send workers abroad, OFWs continue to help sustain the country’s economic growth through their remittances, especially Filipino migrant workers belonging to the higher pay levels.

While the demand for workers is high in Western Canada, the speed with which visas are being approved for Filipinos to come to Canada is very slow, says Vancouver lawyer Catherine Sas.

“I would like to pose the challenge to the Filipino community in Canada to go to your politicians to say that this is wrong,” said Sas, in an earlier interview with The Asian Pacific Post.

“Canada needs the skills and talents of Filipinos . . . but processing time is really bad news for Filipinos.”

Sas advised Filipino-Canadian organizations to look into the new B.C. Provincial Nominee Program, which could help skilled Filipino workers find jobs quickly.

“Filipinos have a strong network in Metro Vancouver to find Canadian employers . . . the employers right now cannot find Canadian people to fill their jobs,” Sas said.

Based on the 2006 Census of Canada released recently, the Philippines was the 3rd highest source of immigrants to Canada in the world, and has consistently been in the top five since 1981.

“We are one of the fastest-growing immigrant communities in Canada, yet our issues remain virtually invisible,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), in a press statement.

According to the NAPWC, the chronic economic and political crisis in The Philippines, including the current state of civil war in the country and the lack of jobs, pushes over 34,000 Filipinos abroad daily in search of a better life.

It is estimated that there are around 500,000 Filipinos living in Canada, concentrated in the major cities of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

“Although we have been migrating to this country for the last 40 years, we remain economically marginalized and segregated,” says Diocson.

She points to the example of the nearly 100,000 Filipino women who have entered Canada since the early 1980s under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

“The LCP as Canada’s de-facto national childcare program has resulted in many women suffering a lifetime of de-skilling and all forms of abuse,” says Diocson.