Why do so many nurses from the Philippines come to Canada/USA?

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · May 6, 2012

you'll have to post the methodology used by that scam company you posted called "globalenglish corporation" before i'm convinced. what the heck is global english anyway? yes, i'm also filipino, albeit now a citizen of the us...there are many things that make me proud of my filipino heritage, one of which is our beautiful native languages, art, poetry, and traditional music. our attempts to mimic american style english and failing miserably at it is embarrassing to me.

"i guess what they say about going abroad is likely to be true as well"

what are you implying with that sentence? you hardly know me. i've been involved in hiring decisions in my work and i don't look at race in making a choice on the best candidate. i've been involved in events with charitable causes for the filipino community here in the us as well.

tyvin, BSN, RN · May 6, 2012

Someone touched on it earlier...special visa privliges are afforded the nurses from PI. In fact a bill to make it even easier for the PI nurses to come to America due to the so called "nursing shortage" just passed in congress. Where I've worked the PI nurses outnumber everyone else. I can see how the OP would ask the question since everywhere you go it seems there are Filipino nurses. My only beef is when they refuse to speak English during report and in front of non-PI patients (that goes for anybody and any race). I've written up a few PI nurse for just that but usually we all get along.

DoGoodThenGo · May 6, 2012

Have said this before and am here saying it again for God and the world to hear. *LOL*

One of the main reasons why nurses, teachers, and other professional workers deemed in "short supply" arrive on US shores from the Philippines has to do with overall United States immigration policy.

Before changes made during the 1960's and so forth including those sponsored by the late senator Kennedy to make immigration based upon mainly family instead of quotas, a large percentage of nurses as well as others came from the UK and EU countries. Many felt this was discriminatory as it favoured mainly persons of "white" heritage/background.

When the laws/rules were changed facilities had to look elsewhere for nurses. The Philippines became a logical choice for several reasons mainly owing to it's status in relationship to the United States post WWII. This also meant you had a large population of English speaking persons, which is one of the requirements for those seeking to immigrate to the US.

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 8, 2012

OK guys, can we please keep to topic and NO PERSONAL ATTACKS

MonicaPacheco · Oct 27, 2014

No there aren't that many Latino nurses at all. In fact Latino nurses face another challenge to overcome. It is not a "norm" to see Latino nurses. Latino nurses and AA nurses are at the bottom % of representation. More than any other group.

caliotter3 · Nov 19, 2014

No there aren't that many Latino nurses at all. In fact Latino nurses face another challenge to overcome. It is not a "norm" to see Latino nurses. Latino nurses and AA nurses are at the bottom % of representation. More than any other group.

Live and work in an area with a predominant Latino population. Employer office person one time remarked how he could not understand how they could never get a Latino nurse, once hired, to stay on the job. I told him since they are in such high demand, it is probably only logical that such a nurse would gravitate to the best job they could find. (Don't think he picked up on the underlying implication in my statement).

CaliLVN-RN · Nov 19, 2014

I've worked with many Filipino nurses and my mentor happens to be Filipino. She came at a time when the demand for "nurses" was high. She is very cautious in her work and doesn't bend for anything. With her there are no shortcuts. Her English is good and her charting is also good. But she came here because she (like everyone else) just wants to take care of her family. When you live in a poor country and there are no jobs, you will go where there is work. I think that's why most Filipinos (and everyone else) leaves their country. I can't blame anybody for leaving their country in order to better their lives for themselves and their families. We would all do the samething. But I can also understand why there is resentment by US Citizens/Canadians at this time. When you see that there is a job shortage and you see all these immigrants that are holding jobs that can be filled by US Citizens/Canadians you tent to be a little upset. But stop and look at the big picture. These immigrants probably have been living in the said area for years and were probably recruited around the time when there was no citizens to hire. Or they were probably born in the said country and have roots from the Philippines or any other country. If they have proper papers and are in the said country legally then we need to respect that. We can't expect their papers to be taken away just because there are citizens out of work. If their visas expire and are no longer needed then that's a different story. I think the original poster was just curious as to why there were so many Filipino nurses flocking to Canada. I don't think she meant any harm and it seemed as if she wanted to hear their stories. We also need to respect her for that instead of attacking each other. Best of luck to everyone.

mikeru22 · Nov 21, 2014

Ever wonder why many Filipino RNs go elsewhere to practice nursing?

1. While most of their families struggled so hard to send them to nursing schools which most often than not are very expensive to the point of selling their farms, cows and properties to pay for the tuition fee, entry level nurses must endure years of volunteerism (that is performing all the things an employed nurse does or sometimes more without receiving any compensation or benefit at all) or months of on the job training where in nurse trainees are required to pay the hospital without the guarantee of being hired in the end.

2. While there is a staggering oversupply of registered nurses in the last couple of years, getting an entry level job in government and private hospitals seems impossible if you don't have connections. The "backer" system is so rampant that even your scholastic achievements and qualifications wouldn't get you anywhere. In my case, soon after I passed the Nurse Licensure Exam, I began submitting my papers to different hospitals and the best thing I could get is pass the written exam and that's it until I finally sought my friends help who happens to know someone from the recruitment department. Instantaneously, my application was processed and in a span of 2 months, I was hired a staff. It took me 8 bloody years of anticipation and frustration when all I needed to do was use my friend's unsolicited assistance.

3. On top of these, once finally hired as a staff, the next issue a nurse has to think about is how to make ends meet since we only earn 250-850 CAD a month while the cost of living in most cities is 425 CAD per month for single individuals.

This pay is nothing compared to the number of patients we handle in a shift, the unpaid overtime at work we render just to make sure that we didn't miss anything, the number of assess we wiped, the medications, personal hygiene kit or materials we had to shell out for just to provide our indigent patients the things they needed, and the daily battles we have to endure from one shift to the next.

Filipino nurses are the most exploited, underpaid and neglected professionals in the Philippines and you can't blame us if we opt to go elsewhere for a greener pasture not only for ourselves but also for our families who gave all that they could just to see us where we wanted to be.

nursefromcali · Nov 27, 2014

I guess working abroad is better. Due to better pay and better opportunities. Just saying. :)