<p>Canadian immigration prioritizes skill but at what cost? Drawing on ethnographic research, this article examines the quest for permanent residency by well-educated Filipinos temporarily and precariously employed in Canada, and it situates their Canadian experience within the context of the social reproduction of Philippine migration. In 2010, the Philippines was Canada’s top immigration source country across all visa programs, permanent and temporary. Increasingly, potential migrants have commenced their migration journeys by seeking university credentials adapted to in-demand slots defined by skill. Working back from the present to trace policies enabling the increased presence of skilled Philippine migrants in Canadian labour markets, this article shows how the bifurcation of immigration policy’s reliance upon ideological constructions of skill enables the accumulation of capital along the Philippines-Canada migration corridor. In addition to the social reproduction of households, remittances from relatives facilitate migration goals, including education for migration; hence, migration is socially reproduced over several generations. Regardless of credentials, research confirms that deskilling, reskilling, and upskilling remain a common thread in the migration histories of Filipinos in Canada. In particular, we record how the skill binary, whereby skill is equated with permanent migration and unskilled equals temporary status, relates to feminized work, for example, in service and care. With this observation, we propose that social reproduction as theorized by generations of feminist scholars is crucial to assessing how immigration policy enables capital accumulation and normalizes the devaluation of skills acquired through remittances from previous generations of migrants.</p>