President Benigno Aquino and Conservative Government

: Harper said his government is pro-immigration and it has welcomed a growing number of immigrants and temporary workers from the Philippines over the years, according to CTV. But he said Ottawa must also make sure that immigrants are not filling jobs for which Canadians could be hired. Harper was asked about the temporary foreign worker program during a joint news conference Friday with Philippine President Benigno Aquino, who is on an official visit to Canada. We are making sure that when people come to this country to work and to work long-term, they have the ability to move towards being permanent citizens of this country, Harper said. In 2011, the Conservative government set an April 1, 2015 deadline for temporary foreign workers in low-skilled jobs to either become permanent residents or return home. This country is not going to have a policy, as long as I’m prime minister, where we will have a permanent underclass of people who are so-called ‘temporary’ but here forever with no rights of citizenship and no rights of mobility. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.