Despite having a $75k study scholarship, Canada still denied student study permit

She graduated from university with a 90 per cent average and has on her resume a list of accomplishments that include running a group to empower young girls through education, as well as building an e-commerce platform to help women earn extra income.

 

She has also been offered a $75,000 scholarship by Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo to pursue a master’s degree in Canada that will cover her tuition fee, accommodations and all expenses in the country.

 

Despite those stellar qualifications, 26-year-old Farzana from Afghanistan was refused a study permit and her supporters believe it has to do with the refugee label that has followed.

 

This is the second refusal in a row for the new Resilient Futures Scholarship program that aims at supporting Afghan women to pursue post-secondary education in Canada as an alternative to humanitarian resettlement as refugees.

 

“In any other circumstances, these would be precisely the types of international students that Canada would be seeking to attract from anywhere around the world,” said Marc-André Séguin, founding president of For the Refugees, a Montreal-based charity that runs the program.

“The fact that we are having this conversation is only attributable to the fact that these women are women from Afghanistan.”

 

The Immigration Department declined to comment on these applications but said they are considered on a case-by-case basis.

 

“Study permit applicants must satisfy an immigration officer that they have sufficient ties to their country of origin, particularly with regard to their family and economic situation, and that they will leave Canada at the end of their period of authorized stay,” a department spokesperson said.

 

The program has been three years in the making by volunteers who have worked tirelessly with Wilfrid Laurier and Global University Systems Canada to secure 15 scholarships with a value of $500,000.

 

The first cohort consists of seven Afghan women heading to various schools in Canada, including Farzana, who is hoping to start her master’s program in international public policy at Wilfrid Laurier this fall.

 

The eldest of eight children, Farzana — who asked that her last name be withheld because she still has some immediate family in Afghanistan — said her father, who studied literature, is a big believer in education and ran a high school in their village in Wardak until 2023 when it was forced to shut down by the Taliban.

 

She was studying business administration on a full scholarship at Savitribai Phule Pune University in India in 2021 when the Afghan government fell to the Taliban after the U.S. and allied forces left the country.

 

Since graduating with her bachelor’s degree earlier last year, Farzana has applied for many scholarships, but Resilient Futures was the only one that would cover all expenses. She went through a competitive application process before she was accepted by Wilfrid Laurier in May.

 

“I was fortunate my father was an educated person,” said Farzana. “I would’ve been still in Afghanistan, maybe married to someone and had the responsibility of a family like other young girls. But today I live to help many other people in Afghanistan. It’s only because I have had an education.”

 

Farzana founded a group called Empower Her in 2022 to offer online classes to young girls inside Afghanistan and help them look for scholarships abroad, as well as a co-op to sell online embroideries made by Afghan women.

 

She was shocked when Canada refused her study permit in July.

 

“Canada is one of the biggest supporters for education for Afghan girls,” said Farzana, who sells nuts in markets in India to support herself and family.

 

“I have come a long way. Too bad, they only saw me as just another person running out of Afghanistan but didn’t see my hard work.”

 

Gavin Brockett, director of Wilfrid Laurier’s International Students Overcoming War program, said Farzana, like all other applicants, had to go through a rigorous process for admission and the scholarship, which requires recipients not to seek asylum during their stay in Canada as a condition.

 

“They are chosen because of their potential and their ability to demonstrate they deserve an academic scholarship,” said Brockett, whose scholarship program is funded by the university’s students, diaspora communities and donors. To date, it has raised more than $3 million and supported 42 students in nine years.

 

“We face a lot of pressure from people who want us to pick anybody and everybody because someone is in need. But that’s not the criteria.”

 

Gabrielle Thiboutot, a lawyer and director of Resilient Futures, said the group has submitted two study permit applications so far and are still working on five others. While both refusals have been reopened after protest, she said the Immigration Department’s response is discouraging.

 

She said the Parliament’s Special Committee on Afghanistan recommended in 2022 the federal government issue study permits for scholars who had full scholarships to study in Canada and access other economic immigration streams “without assessing the intention of returning to their country of origin.”

 

Last year, in its response to the committee report, Ottawa agreed to “actively explore the recommendation” and examine options.

 

“So how come the government was saying that and when these women qualified for everything and we applied, they are still denied?” asked Thiboutot, adding that Farzana and the other woman must arrive by mid-September to start school as planned.

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star