Number of Filipinos in Canada on the uptick

The number of Filipinos entering in Canada annually rose to a 10-year high in 2008, and over a hundred thousand Filipinos have become Canadian citizens already in that same ten-year period. Data from statistics agencies of countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that some 23,700 Filipinos entered Canada in 2008 compared to some 9,200 who entered the North American country in 1999. The number has made Filipinos the third biggest source country of the foreign population behind the Chinese and the Indians, says data coming from OECD’s recently-released 2010 International Migration Outlook. Citing estimates of what is called the “visible minority" (from a March 2010 report of Statistics Canada, titled Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population, 2006-2031) in Canada, the estimated 427,000 Filipinos in Canada can reach 1.021 million by 2031. This is an inward exodus of 51,050 every year into the OECD-member country. Filipinos, the fourth most visible minority population segment in Canada (behind the Chinese, the South Asians and the “Blacks,") “could double in size in the next 25 years," the StatCan report wrote. In Toronto alone (found in Ontario province), StatCan projects that the currently 180,000 Filipinos there can reach 404,000 by 2031. In Montreal, the estimated 24,000 Filipinos there in 2006 can become 56,000 by 2031. In terms of acquisition of nationality (also covering the same ten-year period), 110,285 Filipinos became Canadian citizens —including the 11,654 in 2008 (the third highest behind the Chinese and the Indians). Fruits of previous negotiations The increasing number reveals the fruits of previous years of negotiations between Canadian national government executives and Philippine provincial public officials for the OECD-member country to hire skilled Filipino workers and give them permanent residency status. Canada was a major source of remittances to the Philippines last year, with the US$1.9 billion coming from Canada more than made up for the declining remittances from the United States by some US$90.325 million. The US$7.323 billion from US-based Filipinos sent in 2009 was less by US$501.946 million from 2008 remittance figures. As regards the inflow of the foreign population (by nationality) into OECD-member countries, 2008 data in the OECD migration report showed that Filipinos are the fourth-biggest foreign population entrants in Japan (21,000-plus) and in New Zealand (3,600-plus); fifth-biggest in Australia (7,100-plus) and in Norway (1,800-plus); sixth-biggest in Korea (9,200-plus); eighth-biggest in Italy (7,400-plus) and in the United Kingdom (13,000-plus); and the ninth-biggest in Denmark (700-plus). The 2008 data on the Filipino population that entered into New Zealand, Norway and Australia were also ten-year highs, OECD data showed. From 1999 to 2008, some 386,738 Filipinos have acquired US citizenship —and the 58,792 Filipinos who became naturalized Americans in 2008 was the most number over a ten-year period, and the number is the third highest that year behind the Mexicans (231,815) and the Indians (65,971). Also covering a ten-year period, 32,253 Filipinos became Australian citizens; some 2,652 have become naturalized Norwegians; and 8,545 have acquired citizenship in New Zealand. Available data in Korea from 2001 to 2008 showed that 4,152 Filipinos have acquired Korean citizenship, while Spain has naturalized 5,213 Filipinos from 1999 to 2007. In terms of the stock of the foreign population by country of birth, the rising number of Filipinos entering into Canada has made the Philippines the fourth biggest origin country of the foreign-born population (with 303,000-plus as of 2006) —behind the United Kingdom, China, and India. Filipinos in the United States who were foreign-born (at 1.83 million) still remained the second biggest foreign born population, though they’re way behind the Mexicans (at 11.845 million). Filipinos who were foreign-born ranked seventh in Australia, ninth in Ireland, 12th in New Zealand, and 14th in Norway, OECD data revealed. OECD’s 2010 International Migration Outlook wrote that the granting of citizenship in OECD-member countries has become “a major political issue, with several countries introducing measures to “strengthen immigrants’ links and loyalty to the host society," while others made it more difficult for immigrants to naturalize. As for how the 2008 global economic crisis hit migration flows, OECD said most member-countries had declining flows due to declining demand for foreign workers. Though, the stock of the foreign population in OECD-member countries did not necessarily decline, OECD adds, “since inflows (of foreigners) continued and have generally exceeded outflows." - Jeremaiah M Apiniano, OFW Journalism Consortium