Open this picture in gallery: A pedestrian walks by the Dalhousie Dentistry Constructing in Halifax on Friday, Might 22, 2015.Darren Pittman/The Canadian Press
Overseas college students, a few of them confused by false guarantees from schooling consultants, are being misled into considering that learning at Canadian postsecondary faculties is a assured path to remaining completely within the nation, senators and immigration specialists are warning.
A report by Senators Ratna Omidvar, Hassan Yussuff and Yuen Pau Woo concerning the federal worldwide pupil program warns that there usually are not sufficient everlasting residence spots to cater to the rising variety of these college students coming to Canada, and calls on Ottawa to clarify that the method of staying completely is extremely aggressive.
Though attending a Canadian school or college will help a overseas pupil achieve everlasting residence right here, success is just not assured. Underneath a program often called Categorical Entry, Canada’s immigration system assigns scores to would-be everlasting residents based mostly on their work expertise and different elements, and solely the best ranked are invited to use.
The senators’ report additionally requires federal motion to cease schooling consultants – who’re paid by Canadian faculties to recruit college students overseas – from overselling the benefit of getting Canadian work permits after commencement. In some circumstances, worldwide college students are denied these permits as a result of their faculties usually are not “designated studying establishments,” that means the colleges aren’t on a authorities record of permitted establishments.
In feedback to the Home of Commons final week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated worldwide college students are an asset to Canada and its future. However he stated there must be a crackdown on consultants giving them “false hope.”
The senators’ report says it’s typically argued that the federal authorities itself can be “perpetuating an inflated sense of hope” amongst individuals who come to review in Canada.
“Whereas the Canadian authorities is being sincere in highlighting the immigration benefits of learning in Canada, it will probably maybe do extra to be forthright concerning the extremely aggressive nature of the everlasting residence utility course of,” the report says.
The federal Immigration Division forecasts that the variety of overseas college students making use of to return to Canada annually will rise to 1.4 million by 2027, in accordance with an inside coverage doc. This yr, round 900,000 are anticipated to review in Canada.
Whereas Ottawa is rising its immigration targets within the coming years, with a purpose of admitting 500,000 everlasting residents a yr by 2025, the senators’ report says there’ll nonetheless not be sufficient spots to cater to the variety of worldwide college students who want to keep after commencement. It notes that whereas the variety of everlasting residents admitted annually is capped, there isn’t a such cap on the variety of momentary residents, together with college students.
Most worldwide college students need to achieve everlasting residence after they end their research, a 2021 survey of scholars for the Canadian Bureau for Worldwide Schooling discovered.
The survey discovered that 73 per cent of respondents deliberate to use for postgraduation work permits, which permit former worldwide college students to work in Canada quickly. The survey additionally discovered that 59 per cent stated they supposed to use for everlasting residence.
However not all postsecondary applications make college students eligible for postgraduation work permits. The senators’ report says worldwide college students have to be made conscious of this.
Ms. Omidvar, one of many report’s authors, stated in an interview that the federal authorities ought to instantly talk with overseas college students concerning the situations for working and staying in Canada, to counter what she referred to as “misinformation” from schooling consultants.
“It’s the federal authorities’s accountability to speak with the scholars. When the visa is issued it must be accompanied by a letter,” she stated.
Toronto immigration lawyer Michael Battista stated many individuals uncover after ending their research that they’ve been rejected for postgraduation work permits as a result of the colleges they attended, typically non-public faculties, weren’t designated studying establishments.
Some return to their house international locations, whereas others have to begin their research once more at designated faculties, he stated.
Mr. Battista, who can be an adjunct professor on the College of Toronto’s regulation college, stated purposes for everlasting residence have gotten much more aggressive. {Qualifications} that a couple of years in the past would have allowed college students to acquire everlasting residence now aren’t sufficient, he stated.
“Worldwide college students are actually being bought a false story,” he stated, including that many expert graduates have waited so lengthy for everlasting residence that they’ve given up.
Ms. Omidvar stated in some circumstances whole households have saved as much as ship one individual to review in Canada. Some households in India have bought their land to pay pupil charges, she added.
The senators’ reportsays analysis by Statistics Canada discovered that 30 per cent of worldwide college students who got here to Canada within the 2000s turned everlasting residents inside 10 years of arriving.
