Clarita in Canada by Dave Jaffe. Part Two.
"It's greatest export was its people," someone said about Ireland. This may be true of the Philippines too. Two and one half million Filipinos work outside their native country. So Clarita isn't the only Filipino working in Canada and nor and nor is her family.
Every day she meets or sees other Filipinos who've come to Canada to work. Many of them send money back to the Philippines every month as does Clarita's family. This money flowing from Canada back to the Philippines keeps their native country afloat. The money the Ramos family sends home supports the growing Ramos clan in Manila where Clarita grew up.
Clarita became a nurse in her homeland but Canada or more accurately, Canadian governments don't accept her nursing degree. "I have to take my training all over again," she says. Once again she studies anatomy, physiology and biology. At the same time she's trying to perfect her English. All of this work costs time and money. So lack of cash and living in a crowded apartment sometimes stress her out.
Then off she goes to a Catholic church to pray for deliverance. On Sundays, she often gets together with young women like herself., who are nurses, nannies or food servers. She longs for a man who will love her and free her from the daily grind. Yer there are few Filipino men around or men period who will do this. Of course, after years of hard work and study many immigrants from east Asia do step up into the middle class. They buy homes and leave behind the world of the poor.
Of course this is getting harder to do, as wages remain flat and housing prices in Metro Vancouver shoot out of sight. As for politics, Clarita's not interested. "I don't follow such things," she says." I wish wages were better and governments would care for people like me. But they don't."
She has twice contacted advocacy groups that help Filipino immigrants. Yet she remains poor. "Canada," she concedes, "isn't all that different from the Philippines."
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