More Pinoy immigrants to Canada seen in 2013

IT will be a fruitful year for Filipinos, who want to migrate to Canada, in 2013.

A Cebu-based visa consultancy firm official gave this assessment after the Canadian government decided to  add around 100 new categories to the existing 29 categroies of preferred professionals qualified to apply  for immigrant visas to Canada.

Nina Mabatid,  Pinoy Care Visa Center chief executive officer, said  the Canadian government had put on hold the processing of  immigrant visa applications until December to update its system for the added categories.

“That addition should allow more opportunities for Filipinos to move to Canada,” said Mabatid.

Categories for midwifes, medical technologists and teachers would likely  be added in the list, said Mabatid, during last Monday’s Canada Day dinner at the Marco Polo Plaza, which was attended by members of the Canada Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

CanCham president Julian Payne said that Canada would always need immigrants and the Philippines was already its  top source of immigrants with about 25,000 to 30,000 Filipinos migrating to Canada every year.

“We need more immigrants because Canada has a  very low reproductive rate. We need a supply of people for our workforce demand. I myself am  an immigrant of Canada,” said Payne.

According to Payne, Canada, like the Philippines, is  rich in natural resources and  has a big demand for people to work in  industries like agriculture, mining and timber, manufacturing and a growing service industry.

Payne said   Filipinos are considered “extra immigrants” who are  well preferred because  of English language fluency  and a  similar value system with the Canadians being predominantly Catholic.

Filipinos are known as law-abiding citizens who don’t cause trouble in Canada, he siad.

“Before it was India and China which were  our biggest source of immigrants, now it’s the Philippines with about 500,000 Filipinos now living in Canada,” said Payne.

Increasing construction activities in Canada have also attracted investors from Cebu, said Mabatid.

“We have Cebuano businessmen already going to Canada and investing  in construction because there’s a large demand for construction there,” she said.

With CanCham established in the country, including 50 members in Cebu, Payne said  the group would advance programs to strengthen the relationship between Canada and the Philippines  in areas of trade,  business, exchange of expertise and immigration.

“Our main area of interest is agriculture imports and exports especially in food products and other assistance that we can help  members with,” said Payne. /Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap