PHILIPPINE Ambassador to Canada Maria Andrelita Austria called for more pre-deployment assistance programs, particularly for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based in Canada and boost their employment credentials to help them secure quality jobs in the country.
“Philippine Ambassador to Canada Maria Andrelita Austria noted the robust Filipino diaspora in Canada and highlighted the need to empower them, especially through more responsive programs on pre-deployment, assistance-to-nationals and diaspora engagement,” the Philippine Consulate in Toronto said in a statement on Jan. 4, citing a migration forum at the Chelsea Hotel in Toronto on Dec. 8.
At the same forum, Philippine Migrants Rights Watch co-chairperson Carlita G. Nuqui cited the need to mitigate the social costs of migration and to improve assistance programs for migrant Filipino workers.
The Canadian government last year flagged a need to fill a gap in its healthcare industry due to its increasingly aging population.
Christopher Bott, First Secretary, Migration at the Canadian Embassy in Manila in November urged Filipino healthcare workers looking to work in the northern American country to consider cities outside major ones.
“There is still a great demand for workers in what I would say are critical sectors in Canada, things like in the construction industry, especially in healthcare still,” he earlier told a form in Quezon City.
This comes even as Canada imposed stricter immigration policies in a bid to reduce temporary residents to 5%.
Migrant Workers Undersecretary for Policy and International Cooperation Patricia Yvonne M. Caunan earlier said the Philippines posted over 6,000 OFWs in Canada last year. This is on track to equal or overtake more than 8,500 OFWs deployed in 2023.
Ms. Caunan noted that there are on-going talks on signing memorandums of understanding with five Canadian provinces, with Nova Scotia up for first.
Money sent back home from OFWs rose by 2.7% in October, the slowest growth in four months, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Data from the central bank showed that cash remittances increased to $3.08 billion in October from $3 billion in the same month a year ago. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
