Filipino Toronto took shape from the 1960s, when Filipino healthcare workers began arriving in the city after Canada relaxed its immigration rules. Early newcomers settled in St. James Town, around Bloor and Parliament Streets, and the Silayan Community Centre, founded in 1971, became the community’s first lasting institution. Today the highest concentration of Filipino residents is in central North York, along Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue, an area known as Little Manila.
The account below follows Heritage Toronto’s timeline of Filipino heritage and The Canadian Encyclopedia’s entry on Toronto’s Little Manila. Both are secondary summaries, and where numbers or dates are vague, that is stated.
Why Filipinos came
Heritage Toronto sets the background in the Philippines. The islands were part of the Spanish empire for about 300 years, a United States territory from 1898 to 1946, and an independent republic from 1946. Political and economic instability in the decade after independence led many Filipinos to emigrate. English, widely used in government and business, and exchange programs that gave trained healthcare workers, mostly women, United States work visas, helped Filipinos find work in North America.
Canada relaxed its immigration policy in the 1960s, and a group of Filipino healthcare workers came to Toronto looking for jobs, the Heritage Toronto page says. Some Filipinos whose American visas had expired chose to stay and became landed immigrants in Toronto. The wider immigration reforms of the period are described in the article on postwar immigration.
St. James Town and the Parliament Street church
The affordable high-rise community of St. James Town, at Bloor and Parliament Streets, became a popular destination (see the St. James Town article). Many newcomers were Catholic, and Our Lady of Lourdes church on Parliament Street became an important hub. A group called the Filipino Christian Workers, based at the church, helped newcomers adjust. Heritage Toronto does not give the group’s founding date or any arrival figures for these years.
In 1971 the group became the Silayan Community Centre, a non-political, not-for-profit organization separate from the church. In July 1979 it moved to a larger location on Gerrard Street and incorporated as the Silayan Filipino Community Centre. Heritage Toronto says it became religiously and politically neutral because of the volatile political climate in the Philippines. The name comes from a Tagalog word meaning “new dawn” or “new day.” The centre helped with taxes, legal questions, and government services, ran crisis services and a social worker for parents and children, and issued and renewed Filipino passports before a local embassy existed. In the 1990s it built three co-operative housing developments in the Greater Toronto Area.
Caregivers and the fight to stay
From the 1980s, many Filipinos came as caregivers, working as nannies and nurses and supporting families at home, Heritage Toronto reports. Canada’s aging population and dual-income households increased demand. Caregiving offered a path to citizenship and a chance to bring family later. Some caregivers feared exploitation, because live-in contracts could be ended suddenly, which could affect their permanent residency applications. In the 1980s the Coalition of Visible Minority Women argued that caregivers should be allowed to remain in Canada after their contracts ended, under the motto “Good enough to take care of your baby, good enough to stay in Canada.”
The Canadian Encyclopedia dates the sharpest increase later, saying migration rose toward the 1990s, when thousands of Filipino women arrived as live-in domestic caregivers. The two sources therefore agree on the pattern but place its peak in different decades, and neither gives annual arrival numbers.
Little Manila in North York
Over time, the center of Filipino life moved north. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the area along Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue in central North York has the highest concentration of Filipino-origin residents in Toronto (see the North York article). A 2013 grassroots group proposed the name “Filtown,” but “Little Manila” is the name in common use. Filipino Heritage Month is celebrated in June, with a Salu-Salo picnic at Earl Bales Park, and the Taste of Manila festival has been held on Bathurst Street since 2014. Our Lady of Assumption Parish has been Toronto’s designated Filipino chaplaincy since August 2008. A statue of José Rizal, a gift of the Philippine government, was installed in Earl Bales Park in 1998. The Mabuhay (Welcome) Garden, part of the Bathurst-Wilson Parkette, was dedicated in 2016.
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | Filipino healthcare workers arrive in Toronto; St. James Town becomes a destination | Heritage Toronto |
| 1971 | Filipino Christian Workers group becomes the Silayan Community Centre | Heritage Toronto |
| July 1979 | Silayan moves to Gerrard Street and incorporates | Heritage Toronto |
| 1980s | Caregiver advocacy by the Coalition of Visible Minority Women | Heritage Toronto |
| 1998 | José Rizal statue installed in Earl Bales Park | Canadian Encyclopedia |
| 2008 | Our Lady of Assumption designated the Filipino chaplaincy | Canadian Encyclopedia |
| 2016 | Mabuhay Garden dedicated | Canadian Encyclopedia |
How many Filipinos live in Toronto?
The Canadian Encyclopedia reports that the 2016 census counted 274,670 people of Filipino ethnic origin “in and around Toronto.” The area is not defined in the summary, so the figure should be read as a regional count, not a count of the City of Toronto. Heritage Toronto says Toronto’s Filipino community makes up 62 percent of Canada’s Filipino population, nearly 60 years after the 1960s arrivals, but gives no census year. The two figures are not drawn from the same table and should not be combined.
Frequently asked questions
When did Filipinos start arriving in Toronto?
Heritage Toronto dates the first group of Filipino healthcare workers to the 1960s.
What is Little Manila in Toronto?
It is the common name for the area along Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue in central North York, which has the highest concentration of Filipino-origin residents in Toronto, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.
What is the Silayan Community Centre?
A not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 that began with newcomers around Our Lady of Lourdes church and moved to Gerrard Street in July 1979.
How large is the Filipino community?
The 2016 census count cited by The Canadian Encyclopedia was 274,670 people of Filipino origin in and around Toronto. The exact geography is not stated.
Related reading
- St. James Town
- North York
- Postwar immigration to Toronto
- South Asian Toronto
- An overview of Toronto’s history
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Heritage Toronto, A New Beginning: Filipino Heritage in Toronto (undated online timeline; cites interviews, Polyphony and Silayan materials)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, Toronto’s Little Manila
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 25). Filipino Toronto: From St. James Town to Little Manila. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/filipino-toronto-history
MLA: “Filipino Toronto: From St. James Town to Little Manila.” History of Toronto, 25 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/filipino-toronto-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Filipino Toronto: From St. James Town to Little Manila.” Last modified October 25, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/filipino-toronto-history.
The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.