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If Filipino workers were made to choose the country
where they prefer to work, they will pick the US first and Canada
second. Both offer inducements to our workers not only in terms of
high salary and attractive fringe benefits but also in the prospect
of their becoming permanent residents or naturalized citizens in
those lands of hope and opportunity.
The US is highly selective of the
types of workers it will admit. Suffering from a severe shortage of
health workers, it has relaxed its immigration policy to allow
mainly the entry of foreign nurses.
There has been a surge of
Filipino nurses’ migration to the US in the past few decades.
Because of the continuing heavy demand, Filipino families have
chosen nursing as the career of their children. Filipino doctors
desiring to have a share of the market have enrolled in nursing
schools to qualify them as nurses and work also in the US.
Thousands of Filipinos have also
entered the US as teachers. But being a “maidless” country, it
has not shown any inclination to hire foreign domestic helpers.
The US’ restrictive immigration
policy has driven Filipino workers to Canada as their next favorite
destination point. Since the mid-1980s, thousands of Filipino maids
have migrated to Canada. After two years working there, they
acquired permanent resident status and were free to apply for any
job befitting their qualifications.
I was the labor attaché to
Singapore at the time when thousands of Filipino domestic helpers
there were recruited by local placement agencies to work in Canada.
Similar recruitment operations took place in Hong Kong and other
countries where Filipino maids had worked and acquired the work
experience required by Canadian employers.
Today, Canada has enormously
expanded its labor requirements to other fields. It has a need for
1.8 million foreign workers, both in the professional and skilled
categories, over the next 10 years.
To facilitate the recruitment of
Filipino workers, the governments of three Canadian
provinces—Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Manitoba—have
signed a labor agreement with Labor Secretary Arturo Brion. A fourth
province, Alberta, will sign a similar accord next month.
Brion has set up a Canadian Desk
at the DOLE Building in Intramuros to handle queries and coordinate
with concerned agencies on matters relating to the deployment of
Filipino workers to Canada.
Director Salome Mendoza of the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) was designated
to head the desk.
Under the agreements, all hirings
will be made through licensed placement agencies which are properly
authorized by the governments of the four Canadian provinces to
recruit workers. Work applicants are advised to check with the POEA
the list of properly accredited placement agencies.
No placement fees will be
collected from applicants as recruitment expenses will be shouldered
by Canadian employers.
Most of the skilled workers will
be hired by Alberta province which has a standing requirement of
400,000 artisans in the next two years to work in its booming oil
and gas industry.
British Columbia is in need of
30,000 hospitality and construction workers as it prepares to host
the 2010 Winter Olympics. Those with specific skills will be hired
as contract and permanent migrant workers
Canada will continue to hire
domestic helpers, health care workers and professionals, with the
privilege to become immigrants and naturalized Canadian citizens.
Brion describes the labor
agreements as a “milestone in the national efforts to ensure
decent working conditions and the continuous training and successful
reintegration of OFWs.” Their primary goal is to guarantee the
protection and well-being of Filipino workers in Canada.
The labor department has similar
labor agreements with South Korea and the United Arab Emirates under
which workers deployment will be handled by the POEA. The protection
of overseas Filipino workers is written into the accords.
A provision for the employment of
professional and medical workers in Japan is included in the
proposed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement which is
pending ratification by the Senate.
Private recruitment agencies have
been leery of the labor department’s government-to-government
arrangements with some countries in the hiring of workers. There is
no ground for alarm because the number of workers hired under the
accords is only a tiny fraction of the country’s total deployment
figure, mostly handled by licensed placement firms.
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