Canada Tightens Rules on Foreign Student Visas: 'You Can’t All Stay'

Canada is reassessing the number of long-term visas granted to foreign students as part of its efforts to manage immigration and population growth. Federal and provincial officials are discussing ways to align labor market demands with the influx of international students, according to Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

In a phone interview, Miller emphasized that study visas should not guarantee future residency or citizenship. “People should be coming here to educate themselves and perhaps go home and bring those skills back to their country,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been under pressure due to rising living costs, housing shortages, and higher unemployment. Earlier this year, Canada imposed a cap on international student visas, reducing the projected number to fewer than 300,000 this year from about 437,000 last year.

Officials are now scrutinizing which students should stay in Canada after completing their studies. Miller noted the need for better job alignment with students’ fields of study and addressing labor shortages in various provinces.

“The logic for having uncapped or uncontrolled draws from abroad is no longer there,” Miller said. The number of post-graduate work permit (PGWP) holders has surged, with 132,000 new holders in 2022, up 78% from four years earlier.

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Changes to immigration policies will require discussions among governments and businesses. Trudeau’s administration is also reviewing the temporary foreign worker program to prevent misuse and reduce the proportion of temporary residents to 5% of the population from nearly 7%.

Recent protests by foreign workers in Prince Edward Island, including hunger strikes, followed cuts to permanent residency nominations for sales and service jobs. Miller acknowledged that Canada might be perceived as less welcoming to students, but he stressed the need to return to the original intent of study visas as a qualitative proposition rather than a pathway to permanent residency.

Miller also expressed concerns about signs of racism in Canada, particularly after attending a roundtable in Surrey, British Columbia, which has a significant South Asian immigrant population. “We’ve built a very important consensus around immigration in Canada, but that’s being chipped away at,” he said.