2024-01-23 04:52:21
- Nadine Yousif and Brandon Drenon
- BBC reporters from Toronto and Washington
6 hours ago
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Image caption,
Immigration Minister Mark Miller said the measures were designed to protect students from “bad actors” and ensure sustainable immigration.
Canada says it will limit the number of foreign students entering the country for two years to address pressures on housing and health care.
This limit will result in a 35% reduction in approved student permits.
In 2022, there will be more than 800,000 foreign students in Canada, compared with 214,000 ten years ago.
Canadian officials said the new measures are also intended to ensure the “completeness” of the system.
Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced the restrictions on Monday, saying Canada aimed to approve about 360,000 undergraduate study permits this year.
Provinces and territories will allocate a share based on population and current student enrollment. Provinces will then decide how to distribute these licenses among their universities and colleges.
This restriction only applies to students studying diploma or undergraduate courses and will not affect students applying for an extended study permit.
As part of the reforms, starting in September, the Canadian government will also no longer issue work permits to university graduates operating under the public-private partnership model, which is most common in Ontario.
“Some private institutions take advantage of international students, run schools on campuses with insufficient resources, lack support for students and charge high tuition fees, while at the same time significantly increasing the number of international students. This is unacceptable,” Miller said.
He said the new measures “are not targeted at individual international students” but are intended to ensure prospective students receive “the high-quality education they signed up for”.
The Trudeau government announced the measures as it comes under increasing pressure to address an increasingly unaffordable housing market.
The average house price in Canada is currently C$750,000 (US$550,000), and rents in Canada have increased by 22% in the past two years.
Some economists have linked high housing prices to a surge in immigration, saying housing construction has not kept pace with Canada’s unprecedented population growth.
In 2022, Canada’s population increased by more than 1 million in a year for the first time in history, with this growth driven primarily by new immigrants. Last year, Canada’s population reached a record high of 40 million.
image copyrightToronto Star via Getty Images
Image caption,
A group of international students in Canada and their supporters held signs calling attention to several issues facing the group, including cramped and expensive housing, high tuition fees, exploitation by employers and a difficult path to permanent residency.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimates that Canada will need an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030 to restore affordability.
While population growth is part of the problem, experts also point to other pressures that are driving housing starts down, including high interest rates that make it harder for people to afford housing.
Inflation and supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have also contributed to high building material costs.
The restrictions represent a major shift in Canadian policy. The country has historically relied on open immigration to fill job openings and address a rapidly aging workforce.
Miller has previously hinted at reducing the number of international students Canada accepts, causing concern among some Canadian universities.
In response to Monday’s announcement, Universities Canada, which represents post-secondary institutions across the country, said it welcomed the restriction, which would not affect graduate students, but was concerned it would “add pressure to an already strained system.”
The group also said it was concerned some measures would deter students from traveling to Canada, prompting them to study elsewhere.
Last week, the president of McMaster University in Hamilton, outside Toronto, said setting limits would mean a “loss” for the school.
“If we lose international students, we won’t be as well off from a learning environment perspective,” David Farrar said in an interview with CBC.
He added that as universities struggle with limited government funding and budgets, tuition fees paid by international students help offset some of the costs for domestic students.
He said placing restrictions on international students would mean universities would have to cut back on the number of domestic students they enroll.
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