the CanadaVisa Team - 18 July, 2015
After a half-century of immigration, Canada has the second largest community of Filipinos in the world outside of the Philippines itself. Overtime this community has grown to number 315,000, accounting for one per cent of the total Canadian population. A new book written by two Filipino-Canadians celebrates the Filipino community in Canada and its history.
The new book which will hit shelves later this year is written by Aprodicio and Eleanor Laquian, Vancouver residents who immigrated to Canada from the Philippines nearly forty years ago. At the time there were under a thousand Filipinos living in Canada, according to their research. The couple initially brought their two children to Ontario, and eventually settled in Vancouver where they taught at the University of British Columbia for many years.
From its origins only fifty years ago, the Filipino-Canadian community continues to grow. In 2005 alone over 17,500 people immigrated to Canada from the Philippines. A study released in 2005 by Statistics Canada predicts that in the year 2017, when Canada will celebrate its 150th anniversary, the Filipino-Canadian community will grow to approximately 540,000.
The book is as much a tale of the Laquian’s own journey and a celebration of Canada’s multiculturalism as a history of the Filipino-Canadian community. The authors hope that the book will help younger generations of Filipino-Canadians understand their roots, and the way the community has developed since the 1960’s to the thriving Canadian community it is today. Eleanor Laquian calls Canada a "more peaceful and a kinder, gentler nation" and says that most Filipinos have done quite well in Canada.
