Hundreds of foreign graduates in Canada have been protesting against new federal policies that could lead to their deportation. These changes aim to cut permanent residency nominations by 25% and limit study permits, leaving over 70,000 student graduates in a state of uncertainty. The students, who have been protesting for months in provinces like Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia, fear they will be deported when their work permits expire this year.
The number of students coming to study in Canada has led to record growth in Canada’s education-export industry since 2016.Almost all the foreign students aspire to obtain Permanent Residency. Number of foreign students studying in Canada has increased from 400,000 (2016) to well over 1,000,000 (2023) yet growth in targets for Permanent Residents have not kept pace. Rather, Trudeau government aims to reduce the temporary resident population to 5% of Canada’s total population within three years. In 2023-2024, the Canadian government announced that it will give Permanent Residency to five lakh immigrants, but the current rate of transition from study to a work permit is around 15% only. At this pace, only 30,000 to 50,000 immigrants will get Permanent Residency.
In April 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had described the situation as, “Whether it’s temporary foreign workers or whether it’s international students in particular, that have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”
Prime Minister Trudeau since then has not enlightened who all have to the blame for these conditions. Immigrants? Which is easy to say! In reality, it’s poor planning and poor policy. When Canada brings them here with dreams and hopes and “assured job offers”, what they really get is hardly any jobs and if at all they are able to get any they are subjected to inhumane conditions. And now new policy!
Who’s responsible when things fail to go according to plan? That is the question at the heart of various protests by international students that now are being held across Canada. From Manitoba in the Canadian prairies, to Prince Edward Island on Canada’s Atlantic coast, to larger urban areas like the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), local authorities are struggling. Large number of graduates with post-graduate work status face a dilemma and have expressed frustration as their dream of obtaining permanent status remain unfulfilled.
The government needs to understand that though it is not obligated to grant Permanent Residency to everyone who comes to study. However, those protesting have been here before the rules were changed, thus denying them their rights that prompted them to move to move to Canada. The claims by the protesting students are right- they feel deceived by the Canadian government, which they had previously thought to be student-friendly. A number of demonstrators emphasized that they were promised a simpler path to permanent status when they arrived in Canada. Their primary reason for studying in Canada was the expectation that, upon graduation, they would be granted permanent residency, paving the way for eventual citizenship. Canada brought these students to address a perceived labour shortage, it went too far and embraced too many newcomers at once, and now since it can’t cope with fresh challenges, it has changed its policy.
These International students have nowhere to go, while right-wing politicians were also not supporting the students in their protest, leaving them in distress. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a lot to answer. The students are fit to study, fit to work but when it comes to giving them work permits, his government prefers to change the horses midstream; leaving these students in a lurch.