I also would like to say that their skills and knowledge and also their education must be recognized. I think that's really very important for women in this country. This is what we want for our women: to achieve economic security, to achieve the kind of equality and also independence that we all would like to see in our country as women, as feminists. Without answering their economic issues first, we could not have a society that is also sensitive to the needs of the women.
Concretely, we would also like the Filipino nurses to be recognized, because we have a legacy in this country. In the seventies, I came as a nurse. There was a reciprocity agreement between the Philippines and Canada, and I practised my nursing profession. I must say that I had better economic opportunities than do the nurses who have come recently and who are in live-in caregiver programs.
So, clearly, this is creating division among the women and among the professionals, because we're coming from a third world country, and this is what we face. So we need to look at that.
We need to look at the conditions of the next generation of our community. They are already vulnerable. We have the highest high school dropout rate in Vancouver and the second highest high school dropout rate in Montreal. So you can just imagine the suffering of this community. But we also have a lot to contribute to Canadian society, being a community of professionals. I think it is really important to say this.
Again, the rights of these women must also be respected. We would like Canada to sign the UN convention for the protection of the rights and welfare of the migrant workers and their families. The community-based programs that we have must be supported, and we should be able to access resources, because we also contribute to the economy of Canada.