“I reunited with my children after 11 years”

I moved to Canada to give my kids a better life. It took four permanent residency applications before I saw them again.

Mylene Badiola

IN 2012, I WAS WORKING AS A MCDONALD’S MANAGER in Tagaytay, a city one hour south of Manila, in the Philippines. I was earning $600 a month. My then-husband, Franco, and I had a daughter and two sons, and we always struggled to make ends meet. That year, some of my colleagues moved to Australia to work food-service jobs. Their wages quadrupled. So in March, I quit my job and signed up with an international placement agency, which offered me a position at a Tim Hortons in St. John’s, Newfoundland. I would earn $2,000 a month and qualify for permanent residency after working there for a year. Then I could sponsor my family to come to Canada. My kids would get a better quality of life, so the decision to…

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Maclean's (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2024

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