Some international students claim that the Canadian government uses them as a cheap labor force and then discards them when they are no longer required.
50,000 international students were permitted to stay in Canada last year for 18 months after graduating in order to look for work at a time when businesses were in need of staff and the economy was recovering from Covid shutdowns.
In order to enable more graduates to meet urgent needs in important industries and provide them the opportunity to earn the necessary work experience for permanent immigration, the government sold permit extensions. But some of these prospective permanent residents were left without the status to continue to live or work in the nation a year and a half later.
The office of Immigration Minister Sean Fraser stated that it is looking into measures to better assist people who wish to immigrate to the country permanently. According to spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald in an email, the government recognizes the great social, cultural, and economic benefits that international students provide.
D’Souza’s career has been put on hold, and like many other 2021 grads, his future is uncertain. Many of these former students, who are from India and the Philippines, were forced to quit their occupations when their work permits ran out even though there was no assurance they would be granted permanent residence. Even if their applications are ultimately accepted, they will have to wait months without a job, income, or social or health benefits.
Updated targets
Updated targets are expected to be unveiled by the Trudeau administration on November 2 morning in Toronto. The government is aiming to welcome a record number of new immigrants over the next three years to counteract an aging labor force.
The international grads hoped the permission extension would allow them more time to gather Canadian work experience and raise their rankings in the nation’s skilled worker immigration rating system.
But because of the backlog of applications, the system had to be shut down for ten months so that the government could process the applications for these graduates. After the system was reopened, the students had to compete with pools of immigrants who scored significantly better than average, which decreased their prospects of being granted permanent status.
The short delay, according to the immigration service, allowed the system to catch up. It was part of the system’s design to reduce or pause invites to apply in order to manage expanding inventories.
According to the government, a record-breaking close to 40% of all new permanent residents received in 2021 were former international students. The ministry reported that 26,250 invitations to apply for permanent residency have been sent out since July of this year, 10,212 of which were to foreign graduates or students.
According to the government, international students not only give more than C$21 billion ($15.3 billion) yearly to the economy but tens of thousands of graduates who choose to immigrate permanently also serve as a source of young, educated workers each year. In a paper released last month, economists at the Royal Bank of Canada stated that they can be crucial in resolving both the current labor shortage and upcoming labor market needs.
News Mania Desk
