Canada Announces Changes for International Students
The Canadian federal government has put a temporary cap on the number of international students allowed to travel to Canada.
Immigration minister Marc Miller announced on Monday that Canada is imposing a national cap on the intake of international students into the country. He said the measures are temporary and are going to stay in place for two years, however, Miller announced a slew of other curbs while speaking at the Liberal cabinet retreat, which he said would reduce the intake by 35 per cent over the next two years. How will these affect African immigrants that go to Canada for better life opportunities?
“In order to maintain a sustainable level of temporary residence in Canada, as well to ensure that there is no further growth in the number of international students in Canada for 2024, we are setting a national application intake cap for a period of two years for 2024.”-He said.
For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 364,000 approved study permits, a decrease of 35 per cent from previous years.
This cap will not apply to students at graduate levels, including master’s and doctoral students. Applicants looking for study permit applications at the elementary and secondary school levels will also be exempt.
“In the spirit of fairness, we are also allocating the cap space by province based on population," said Miller. “Some provinces will see much more significant reductions,”-He added.
While the cap is national, it will be applied differently in different provinces. For example, provinces that has the most ‘unsustainable growth’ in international student intake will have to cut student intake more than other provinces.
Miller said he already had productive discussions with the governments of Ontario and British Columbia. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will allocate a portion of the cap to each province and territory, who will then distribute the allocation of permitted international students among designated learning institutions.
These allocations will be awarded to colleges and Universities that meet a set of federal criteria, which are brought in to distinguish from institutions minister Miller described as “Puppy Mills” in locations like strip malls.
The Canadian government also announced changes to the post-graduation work permit program. This program allows international students to work in Canada upon the completion of their degree.
As of September 1st, the postgraduate work permits will no longer be available to public-private institution models.
“In the coming weeks, we will be announcing that open work permits will only be allowed and be available to spouses of international students enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs, as well as professional programs the likes of law and medicine.”- Miller said.
He added, “Spouses of international students enrolled in other levels of studies, including undergraduate and college programs, will no longer be eligible.”
In the year 2023, Canada admitted over 800,000 international applicants. The capping from 800,000 plus admission to an approximate of 364,000 will affect some global regions more than the other. Take a look at the African students' admission into Canada, whereby Africa is allocated less than 30 per cent of the general admission to Canada for studies. 50 per cent of African applicants fail to get study visas to Canada. The cause of these rejections is not thoroughly outlined, however news sources like “University World news” has outlined ‘Racism’ to be the major factor of these rejections. Whereas “CBC” referred to ‘Higher financial burdens’ as the major hindrance to African applicants.
However, regardless of whichever factor that results to lesser admission of African applicants to Canadian institutions. These new laws will affect more students planning to travel or already in Canada. It will be like “conducting a surgery on human while using a hammer”.
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