What Nones does is also important to migrant Filipinos, the third largest group of immigrants in Canada which numbers about 410,000.
With 72% of Filipino migrants living in the urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver, Manitoba and Winnipeg, they initially had to learn how to cope with the new environment and find a job eventually.
In Ontario, this is what Nones and other staff of the resource center provide. Information from the resource centre can range from government programs to private sector job postings. It offers information sessions on skills training, language training, women’s services, youth services, starting one’s own business, and a lot of other programs the government has for people who are looking for jobs, and for immigrants who are trying to integrate themselves into the Canadian workforce. There are computer sessions too for those who are not computer savvy.
Nones is in the middle of all these information dissemination. Like thousands of Filipinos who come to Canada to seek greener pastures, Nones is one of those who are highly educated in Manila. He has a BS in Commerce and a BSBA from De La Salle University. In Toronto, he belongs to the Association of Filipino Accountants and the Knights of Columbus among others just as he would if he was back in the Philippines. There is this feeling of belonging especially to circles that enlist Filipinos.
He has had various jobs before spending some eight years of his working life here at the resource centre. For sure, when he was just a new comer, he would have gone to a resource centre such as this one where he now works, seemingly to seek information on Canadian workforce.
Canada was not Nones’s first choice of country outside the Philippines. As with most Filipinos, the American dream always pervaded. He was sponsored by his wife who had been here since 1980. Nones came here in 1986 after receiving his last call from the Canadian Embassy in Manila. The United States was his first choice, for different reasons. Recognition of credentials, jobs are more diverse, and mobility is faster are just some of them.
Although Nones was a budget analyst in Manila, he first started as an accounts payable clerk in a small scale office in downtown Toronto and made his way up with different jobs in the private and public sectors. A Canadian work experience is needed for anyone making a mark in the Canadian work environment.
Because Toronto is such a very cosmopolitan city, the right mix of assets can land anyone the right job accordingly. Of course that would include the level of education recognized in the Canadian academic setting and the experience even from outside Canada. Out of the total workforce, 195,750 Filipinos make up 1.2%. Coupled with determination and hard-work, Filipinos mainly make it with flying colours.
For thousands of Filipinos like Jimmy who made it to Canada, the journey does not end there. Nones and his wife, who now works as an office manager for a realty and mortgage office, used to live in one of the North York Council for Jewish Women not-for- profit housing systems, where rent was not expensive. They worked their way up to be able to move to their own house in one of the cities outside Toronto.
|
