Immigration minister tells international students to return home with skills learned in Canada

Citizenship and residency “should never be the promise” for international students seeking education in Canada, according to Justin Trudeau, the immigration minister.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Immigration Minister Mark Miller acknowledged that foreign nationals have been utilizing the international student visa program as a “cheap way” to become citizens and permanent residents of Canada.

That ought to never be the assurance, Miller stated in a Bloomberg interview that was released on Wednesday. “People ought to be here to learn, maybe return home and use those skills to improve their country.”

He pointed out that the government is attempting to revert to “its original intent,” according to which students attend Canadian colleges and universities to further their education rather than merely as a simple means of obtaining employment and entering the nation.

Miller promised to reduce the number of temporary residents from 2.5 million to slightly over two million, or 5% of the population, over the following three years, down from 6.2% in 2023.

The Liberal government may even go above and beyond the target it set in January to reduce the ceiling on overseas students by 35% for new study permits.

The government is on course to cut the number of study licenses issued to foreign students by 48%, from 436,678 in 2023 to possibly 229,000 this year, according to an education recruitment firm.

The quantity of post-graduate work permits issued has nearly quadrupled since Trudeau became power. Stats Canada reports that in 2015, there were 27,200 yearly PGWPs issued, whereas in 2022, there were 132,000 new PGWP holders.

The Liberal government is reportedly working to solve the problems with the temporary foreign worker program, which is being “used and abused” by business owners looking to make quick cash, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Impact evaluations on the labor market are meant to stop abuse of the system. Businesses are required to demonstrate their need for temporary foreign workers and to confirm that they have made every effort to hire Canadians before hiring any foreign workers. The concern is that company owners are taking advantage of the system and the eager arrivals to Canada by selling these LMIAs to foreign workers.

In 2023, the Liberal government issued more temporary foreign worker permits than the previous year despite Canada’s rising unemployment rate. The rate rose from 6.2% in May to 6.4% in June 2024, continuing its steady climb of 1.3% since April 2023.

Historically, an unemployment rate of over 6% in an economic region would trigger an automatic rejection of temporary foreign worker applications in lower-wage businesses, such as food and retail.

However, permits continue to be issued due to the Liberal government removing the automatic rejection policy in April 2022. “Removing the automatic refusal to process (the LMIAs) will help employers in regions where severe labour shortages have persisted despite an unemployment rate of 6% or higher,” the announcement read.

Even though more TFW licenses were granted in 2023, two territories and almost six provinces had unemployment rates that were at or above the 6% mark. PEI, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nunavut were the four Atlantic provinces with unemployment rates exceeding 6% and 8%, respectively.

Under the TFW program, Immigration Refugees Citizenship Canada awarded 147,863 work permits between January 1 and September 30. Compared to the same period in 2022, this is an increase of more than 50%.

The increase in temporary foreign workers was ascribed by the government to the recovery of the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, Canada issued 98,310 licenses through the TFWP before to the pandemic in 2019, which is roughly equal to the number in 2022.

It is anticipated that fewer new TFW permits will be given in 2024 compared to 2023 as a result of government initiatives including lowering the restriction on the number of TFWs a business can hire from 30% to 20% and halving the duration of LMIAs from 12 to 6 months.

According to Miller, governments and businesses will need to consult on changes to immigration policy. In addition, Miller stated that Trudeau’s administration is closely examining the “use and abuse” of a different program that permits businesses to apply for the temporary employment of foreign workers. He also pledged to lower the percentage of temporary residents to 5% of the population, down from roughly 7%.

Following the provincial government’s reduction in the number of permanent residency nominations for sales and service, foreign workers in Prince Edward Island have demonstrated in recent weeks, with some even embarking on hunger strikes.

According to Miller, Canada has to do a better job of ensuring that positions offered to international students are appropriate for the degrees they have earned. The topic of “how we match post-graduate work permits to an increasingly contracting shortage of labor” and reflecting labor demands is being discussed in the provinces.

“There is no longer any justification for uncapped or uncontrolled draws from overseas.”

According to government data, the number of individuals in Canada holding those visas has increased significantly: in 2022, there were 132,000 new PGWP holders in the nation, a 78% increase from the previous four years.