Canada’s immigration minister tightens rules on foreign students’ work permits: ‘Not all of you can stay’

PTC News Desk: In a move that demonstrates the government’s intention to curb immigration and population growth, Canada is re-evaluating the number of long-term visas it issues to international students.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated over the phone that federal and provincial officials have been debating how to meet the demand for foreign students in the labor market with them. While Canada has long relied on universities and colleges to attract educated, working-age immigrants, he stated that obtaining a study visa shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee of permanent residence or citizenship.

It ought never to be the assurance. He remarked, “People ought to be coming here to educate themselves and maybe return home with those skills. The recent case hasn’t always been like that.”

Growing pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has come from the growing cost of living, fierce competition for limited housing, and increased joblessness. Canada implemented a new limit on the quantity of foreign student visas it grants earlier this year; as a result, it is forecasting to issue less than 300,000 new permits this year, compared to roughly 437,000 last year.

Officials are currently carefully examining which kids from that group should remain after they have completed their coursework.

According to Miller, Canada has to do a better job of ensuring that positions offered to international students are appropriate for the degrees they have earned. The topic of “how we match post-graduate work permits to an increasingly contracting shortage of labour” and reflecting labor demands is being discussed in the provinces.

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“There is no longer any justification for uncapped or uncontrolled draws from overseas.”

According to government data, the number of individuals in Canada holding those visas has increased significantly: in 2022, there were 132,000 new PGWP holders in the nation, a 78 per cent increase from the previous four years.

Governments and business will need to consult on changes to immigration policy, according to Miller. In addition, Miller stated that Trudeau’s administration is closely examining the “use and abuse” of a different program that permits businesses to apply for the temporary employment of foreign workers. He also pledged to lower the percentage of temporary residents to 5% of the population, down from roughly 7 per cent.

Following the provincial government’s reduction in the number of permanent residency nominations for sales and service, foreign workers in Prince Edward Island have demonstrated in recent weeks, with some even embarking on hunger strikes.

According to Miller, “students now perceive Canada as less welcoming as it has been before.” According to him, the current perspective on study visas is that they are no longer viewed as an inexpensive means of obtaining permanent residency or access into Canada, but rather as a qualitative offering. This is in line with the original intention of the program.

However, Miller expressed alarm about indicators of racism in Canada after participating in a roundtable discussion with local media in Surrey, British Columbia, a region with a high immigrant population from South Asia.

“In Canada, we’ve established a very significant consensus regarding immigration, but it’s being undermined.”

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