International Students Crucial for Meeting Canada’s Immigration Targets

2.25 minute read

"International students play a crucial role in helping Canada achieve its immigration levels target. Recently, the Canadian government emphasized their support for allowing international students to come to Canada at an online webinar organized by the PIE & Navitas called Canada's future success as a global study destination."

Written by My Visa Source Team
Published on: Nov 4, 2021

International students play a crucial role in helping Canada achieve its immigration levels target. Recently, the Canadian government emphasized their support for allowing international students to come to Canada at an online webinar organized by the PIE & Navitas called Canada's future success as a global study destination.

Canadian Minister for International Trade Marry Ng also attended this webinar. She expressed how Canada is looking forward to welcoming international students back on campuses once it is safe to do so.

What Is Canada Doing to Welcome International Students?

The Canadian government will be dedicating resources to ensure that the maximum number of Study Permits are issued to international students for this fall semester. The government also launched the Two PR Pathways for French-Speaking and Non-French-Speaking International Graduates. This pathway offered 40,000 international graduates a chance to apply for permanent residence. This pathway is currently open for French-speaking international students until November 5, 2021.

Why Is Canada Encouraging Immigration of International Students?

The Canadian government committed to welcome over 401,000 new immigrants every year until 2023 in its Immigration Levels Target Plan for 2021-23. Last year, due to the pandemic, the immigration levels to Canada were severely impacted. Given Canada’s declining birth rate, the government has planned to attract over 1.2 million immigrants from all over the world to a country with a population of just over 38 million people.

Sonja Knutson, director of the internationalization office at the Memorial University of Newfoundland says that the existing and new immigration pathways for international students are critical for cities outside Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.

What Are the Immigration Challenges Faced by International Students?

While the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced many temporary public policies during the pandemic to support international students, one of the biggest challenges has been the processing times. The IRCC relies on third parties to do certain types of processing. Due to this, biometric and language proficiency exams have been closed, especially in certain countries where these services are more in-person.

There also has been pushback on increasing international student immigration by economists at a time when job opportunities are low and the new immigrants are unwilling to settle outside the major hubs like Toronto and Vancouver.

What Can Canada Do to Help International Students?

Despite all the challenges, Canada’s support for international students has been welcomed by regional and international universities. Rummana Khan, vice provost and associate vice president, students and international, Simon Fraser University, says that the focus needs to be on preparing students for the Canadian workforce and ensuring that they have access to employment opportunities both on and off-campus in an equitable manner. This will allow them to obtain work experience and become eligible for permanent residence.