We feel betrayed by Canada, international students say
Former international student Simrat Kaur remembers the slogan Canada used to advertise its international education abroad: Study, explore, work and stay.
And it wasn’t too long ago that she heard former Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino on TV praising foreign students’ contributions to Canada during the pandemic and pleading for them to remain in the country.
“This was the Canadian dream we were sold,” Kaur recalled. “To quote (Mendicino), ‘We don’t just want you to study here, we want you to stay here,’ and so we stayed.”
At a news conference Wednesday, Kaur shared her frustration over the perceived betrayal by the Canadian government, joining a chorus of trade union leaders to call on Ottawa to extend the students’ expiring work permits and provide them with a pathway for permanent residence.
Last month, the federal government unveiled a three-year immigration level plan that will reduce the annual intake of permanent residents by 21 per cent to 395,000 next year, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027. It will also slash the temporary population including international students and foreign workers to 445,901 in 2025 and to 445,662 in 2026 but will increase it modestly by 17,439 in 2027.
The reduced targets are meant to achieve a population decline of 0.2 per cent in each of the next two years before returning to a population growth of 0.8 per cent in 2027. The plan is also predicated on the assumption that 1,262,801 temporary residents would leave the country voluntarily next year, and another 1,104,658 in 2026.
The fewer permanent resident spots and the push to enforce removals of those running out of status, said Kaur, leave temporary residents with no choice. Desperate migrants try to buy time by transitioning to visitor visas, being duped into buying fake job offers for new work permits, re-enrolling in school and, for some, seeking baseless asylum.
Many of the students’ families have sold their land, borrowed money and got into debt to pursue their Canadian dreams. “This has been devastating for us,” said Kaur.
Jessica Cooper, president of the Peel local of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, criticized the treatment of international students and migrant workers as disposable labour, and their being scapegoated for the country’s affordability and housing crisis.
“To blame international students and immigrant workers for this crisis is both racist and irresponsible,” said Cooper. Cooper’s union is one of 50 trade unions, labour organizations and community groups that have signed onto a statement to support the campaign by the Naujawan Support Network, a grassroots advocacy group for migrant students and workers.
Bob Punia, president of the Ontario Dump Truck Association, said the industry relies on a skilled and diverse workforce to keep the economy moving, and said international graduates have been an integral part of addressing the labour shortages.
“We need these individuals,” he said. “It’s not something that you can turn off and turn on. Once they are gone, it’s very hard to bring other individuals into the industry.”
This article was first reported by The Star
