‘Deprofessionalized Filipino’

TORONTO – Four main factors explain why Filipino immigrants get low-paying jobs in Toronto. These are their financial circumstances; the immigration programs used; the arbitrariness and unfairness of the credentialization process; cultural stereotyping, racism and discrimination.

These were the findings of the research, “Explaining the Deprofessionalized Filipino: Why Filipino Immigrants Get Low-Paying Jobs in Toronto,” by Dr. Philip F. Kelly, Mila Astorga-Garcia, and Enrico F. Esguerra.

These findings, along with recommendations, were presented at the study’s launch and seminar held Thursday, Oct. 29 at the OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) Auditorium to an audience of more than 180 people.

The study, published by CERIS (Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement)-The Ontario Metropolis, is a research project collaboration between Dr. Philip Kelly of York University, and the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) — a coalition established five years ago with 27 founding organizations and over a hundred individuals.

“Given the class structure of Philippine society, the class origins of most Filipino immigrants, and the place of the Philippines in the global economic order, Filipinos generally arrive in Canada without significant financial assets, and this situation affects their integraiton into the labour market” says the study.

“In most cases, they need a “survival job” and cannot afford educational upgrading,” especially if they have to feed their families, the study adds.

The second major factor pertains to the use of certain immigration programs that tends to push them further from practicing the professions they have been trained for. It cites that around 20 percent of Filipino immigrants arrived through the live-in-caregiver program, and another 41 percent through family reunification.

This means that a large portion of immigrants have been separated from their immediate families for a significant period of time, and thus have to send money back home to their families, exacerbating their already difficult financial situation. Also those coming in through the caregiver program are restricted from pursuing further education and training in their field, so that even after they “graduate” from the program, they find work in caregiving and other low-paying precarious jobs, the study explains.

The third major factor has to do with the arbitrary way people’s educational credentials and training are assessed by professional regulatory boards that often pose as barriers toward access to professions. Specifically these regulatory boards seemed to be incapable of providing a fair assessment due to their seeming lack of knowledge about the quality of colleges and universities in the Philippines as well as the rigorous requirements toward professional certification.

The fourth factor is the stereotying of Filipinos in Canadian workplaces, as some of their virtuous inclinations for conscientious hard work and deference to managerial hierarchies are interpreted as un-managerial. Such stereotyping is considered a type of racialization and discrimination of Filipinos in the workplace, says the study.
The study’s findings were based on a survey and a series of focus groups and interviews. It also used quantitative information from Statistics Canada’s 2006 census data, as well as immigration data.

Over 1,100 survey questionnaires were distributed widely in the community, and 421 were completed, indicating a high degree of interest on the deprofessionalization issue by members of the Filipino community.

The study came up with policy recommendations to deal with the major factors responsible for deprofessionalizing Filipinos that includes regulating immigration fees to make them commensurate with income levels in sending countries so as not to place immigrants in dire financial circumstances and heavily burdened with debt; granting landed status upon arrival for those coming under the Live-in Caregive Program, and allowing them to enroll in upgrading educational and training courses in their field; Filipino professionals should be allowed to practice in Canada immediately. Should there be a need for skills upgrading, financial assistance should be provided to subsidize upgrading and bridging programs.

The study also touched on the reason why immigrants from the Philippines keep on leaving their homeland, even as majority of them end up in low-paying jobs. The difficult economic and political circumstances –made even worse by corruption and the curtailment of civil liberties — and the colonial mentality resulting from the long colonial history of the country were considered push factors for Filipinos to seek greener pastures in the West. Along with these push factors, however, the study noted as well that “the Philippine government has been actively encouraging the export of human labour through a variety of institutional structures” resulting in an increasing number of temporary overseas contract workers leaving the Philippines every year. The Philippine government benefits immensely from the remittances of these workers.

Even this early, the study has been hailed in academic and other sectors as groundbreaking and valuable on the subject of deprofessionalization, which used to be dismissed merely as anecdotal occurrences.

“Finally, we have a solid piece of analytical research backed by both quantitative and qualitative data that links deprofessionalization to the complexities of the distinctive avenues of immigration programs used by Filipino professionals to enter Canada, the Philippine class structure and class origins of such professionals in Philippine society, the process of social networking-based job searching, the problems related to credential assessment and professional regulatory bodies’ gate-keeping functions, and the cultural stereotyping of Filipinos. This study…has brought the debate on Filipino immigration and labor market integration in Canada to new levels,” says Dr. Leonora Angeles, Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of British Columbia.

From Aurora Javate De Dios, Executive Director of Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) of Mriram College, the Gender Adviser of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), and the President of Board of Trustees of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women - Asia-Pacific (CATWAP).

“For all of us studying migration (this) work will be very valuable . We sometimes call this phenomenon deskilling, but deprofessionalization is much more accurate if this becomes a permanent and lifetime situation. Hope to get a copy soon.”
From Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Philippine cultural manager, policy maker and book author: “Hoping to get copies of the book for our local academics who study migration. Congrats for what is surely a worthwhile study.” - The Philippine Reporter (www.philippinereporter.com), October 30, 2009