United States still top destination of Pinoy migrants in 2011

The United States remains the top destination of Filipino migrants in 2011, a recent report of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) said.

From 2002 to 2011, more than half of Filipino migrants sought residency in  the US, the CFO's 2011 Compendium of CFO Statistics on Migration said.
 
Some 730,378 Filipinos migrated in 80 countries from 2002 to 2011, the CFO said.

During that period, 404,314 Filipinos (or 55.36 percent) of the emigrants went to the US. The second and third popular destinations were Canada and Japan.
 
“This is the actual number of emigrants who registered at the CFO prior to their departure as emigrants or permanent residents overseas,” the state agency said, adding that from 1980 to 2011, the total number of permanent Filipino migrants was 1,856,455.

 
Top 10 destinations of Pinoy emigrants from 2002 to 2011*
 
(1) United States
404,314 (55.36 percent of 730,378 Filipinos who migrated in 80 countries)

(2) Canada
159,739 (21.87 percent)

(3) Japan
63,957 (8.76 percent)
 
(4) Australia
32,228 (4.41 percent)

(5) Italy
18,287 (2.50 percent)

(6) New Zealand
10,419 (1.43 percent)

(7) South Korea
7,881 (1.08 percent)

(8) Spain
7,573 (1.04 percent)

(9) United Kingdom
5,257 (0.72 percent)

(10) Germany
4,711 (0.65 percent)

* Source: 2011 Compendium of CFO Statistics on Migration of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas

Dropping rates

While the US and Canada remained the top two destinations of Filipino migrants from 2010 to 2011, there has actually been a decrease in the number Filipinos immigrating in those countries as the rates dropped by 8.43 percent and 4.02 percent, respectively.
 
The number of Filipinos choosing United Kingdom as their destination also dropped, declining by 8.32 percent, the CFO said.

In Japan, the number of Filipino emigrants decreased by as much as 48.35 percent from 2005 to 2011.
 
On the other hand, Australia saw the highest increase in the number of Filipino emigrants in 2011, surging by 29.23 percent, the CFO noted.
 
The CFO added that number of emigrants bound for Italy went up by an average of 26.71 percent from 2004 to 2011.
 
Other statistics
 
“Filipino emigration is dominantly female or six males out of 10 females,” CFO reported.

There was also a “relatively high number of unemployed Filipino emigrants” because 19.45 of the total number of immigrants were jobless, the CFO said.

“In terms of educational attainment, college graduates and professionals make up most of the total number of emigrants or 28.76 percent of the total number,” the report said.

Some 25.33 percent of Filipino emigrants attend schools in their host country.

Meanwhile, 15.91 of the immigrants finished college while 10.81 percent obtained high school diplomas. - VVP, GMA News