Philippines becomes number one source of immigration to Canada

Canada, 22nd September: The Philippines has joined hands with China and India to become the top source for immigration to Canada.

This was revealed by Jason Kenney, Canada’s minister of immigration, citizenship and multiculturalism in Manila this Friday.

Kenney, who is on an international tour to several nations these days, had a brief visit to the Philippines.

Filipinos have emerged as the number one source of migrants, including permanent and temporary migrants, to Canada.

Presently, Canada has nearly 450,000 Filipinos living there and Canada will continue to invite more Filipinos to live, study and work in Canada each year, the Canadian immigration minister asserted.

The recent increase in the number of Filipinos immigrating to Canada is really unexpected, Kenney added. As per the official figures made available, the number of Filipino migrants moving to Canada has hiked from just around 2,000 in the year 2000 to over 20,000 in the year 2008. Such an increase was never predicted or forecast.

Every year, nearly 15,000 to 20,000 people of the Philippines origin immigrate to Canada and become permanent residents. The official data also indicates an increase of 30 percent in the number of Canadian visas issued to Filipinos to live in Canada since the year 2005.

In the year 2009, nearly 30,000 Filipino migrants became permanent residents of Canada and the current year is also expected see the same immigration levels from the Philippines to Canada, maintained Kenney.

Kenney praised the people of the Philippines origin as being full of compassion and being extremely hard-working.

Immigration is playing a positive role in the economy of Canada and making significant contributions towards the nation and the society and immigration will continue to be of great significance for Canada, stated Kenney.

Refuting the reports that Canada was planning to cut the number of immigrants allowed into Canada each year, Kenney said that there is no plan of reducing the immigration levels in Canada. On the contrary, it has appeared that the number of applications for immigration to Canada has been much more than what the nation can actually handle, he added.

Canada has a great number of opportunities of jobs and immigrants are invited to apply for in-demand jobs in Canada, a Canadian official stated. Qualified migrants from the world over can look forward to getting employment in Canada within a span of just around 8 months, the official added.