You Can’t All Stay: Canada’s Immigration Minister on International Student

Canada is re-evaluating the issuance of long-term visas to foreign students as part of a broader effort to manage immigration and population growth more effectively.

Federal and provincial officials are currently in discussions to align the influx of international students with the demands of the labor market, according to Immigration Minister Marc Miller. In a recent phone interview, Miller emphasized that while Canada has historically relied on its educational institutions to attract skilled, working-age immigrants, obtaining a study visa should not be interpreted as a promise of future residency or citizenship.

“That should never be the promise. People should be coming here to educate themselves and perhaps go home and bring those skills back to their country,” Miller stated. “That hasn’t always been the recent case.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under increasing pressure due to rising living costs, a competitive housing market, and higher unemployment rates. Earlier this year, Canada implemented a new cap on international student visas, forecasting fewer than 300,000 new student permits for this year, compared to approximately 437,000 last year.

Officials are now closely examining which students should remain in Canada after completing their studies. Miller pointed out that it is essential to ensure that job opportunities for international students are in line with their academic qualifications. He highlighted the need for a discussion about labor market demands and how to better align post-graduate work permits with the provinces’ shrinking labor shortages.

“The logic for having uncapped or uncontrolled draws from abroad is no longer there,” Miller remarked.

The number of individuals in Canada holding post-graduate work permits (PGWPs) has surged, with 132,000 new PGWP holders in 2022, marking a 78% increase from four years prior, according to government data.

Miller underscored the importance of engaging in dialogue with governments and businesses to navigate changes in immigration policy. Trudeau’s administration is also scrutinizing the temporary foreign worker program, which Miller noted has been “used and abused.” The government aims to reduce the proportion of temporary residents to 5% of the population from nearly 7%.

In recent weeks, foreign workers in Prince Edward Island have protested, with some even initiating hunger strikes after the provincial government reduced the number of permanent residency nominations for sales and service positions.

“Canada is now being seen as less welcoming as it has been before” for students, Miller acknowledged. However, he noted that a study visa is now perceived “less and less as a cheap way to attain permanent residency or entry into Canada, and more of a qualitative proposition — which is where we want to see it go back, to its original intent.”

During a roundtable with local media in Surrey, British Columbia, Miller also expressed concern over rising instances of racism in Canada, particularly within immigrant communities.

“We’ve built a very important consensus around immigration in Canada, but that’s being chipped away at,” he concluded.