OTTAWA –
Permitting worldwide college students to work greater than 20 hours every week may distract from their research and undermine the aim of non permanent overseas employee applications, civil servants warned the federal authorities in 2022.
The warning got here in paperwork ready for former immigration minister Sean Fraser as Ottawa seemed to carry a cap on the variety of hours worldwide college students may work off-campus — a coverage the Liberals ultimately applied.
The Canadian Press obtained the inner paperwork with an entry to info request.
Lifting the cap may assist alleviate labor shortages, a ministerial memo stated, however it may additionally produce other unintended penalties.
“Whereas a brief enhance within the variety of hours worldwide college students can work off-campus could assist deal with these shortages, it might scale back the first function of worldwide college students' research to a better emphasis on work, bypass applications of non permanent overseas staff and create to additional program integrity considerations with the worldwide pupil program,” the memo stated.
Canada's bloated worldwide pupil program has come underneath a lot scrutiny in current months as half of a bigger criticism of liberal immigration insurance policies which have fueled fast inhabitants progress and contributed to the nation's housing disaster.
That assessment led the federal authorities to place a cap on research permits over the following two years because it tries to get a grip on this system.
Greater than 900,000 overseas college students obtained visas to check in Canada final 12 months, greater than triple the quantity 10 years in the past.
Critics have questioned the dramatic enhance in worldwide pupil enrollments at doubtful post-secondary establishments and pointed to considerations that this system is a again door to everlasting residency.
The memo stated lifting the cap on off-campus work could be in “stark distinction” to non permanent overseas employee applications, which require employers to make sure they want a migrant employee and that no Canadian or resident completely unavailable to do the job.
Fraser ultimately introduced in October 2022 that the federal authorities would waive the cap by the tip of 2023 to ease job shortages throughout the nation.
The waiver solely utilized to college students at the moment within the nation or those that had already utilized, in order to not encourage overseas nationals to acquire a research allow simply to work in Canada.
In December, Immigration Minister Marc Miller prolonged the coverage till April 30, 2024, and floated the thought of capping it at 30 hours every week after that.
In an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday, Miller stated he prolonged the exemption as a result of he didn't need to intervene with college students' work preparations in the course of a tutorial 12 months.
“What I actually didn't need to do is have an effect on college students within the present 12 months who’ve made their monetary calculations about how they're going to assist themselves and the way they're going to have the ability to pay for tuition, hire and meals. ,'' Miller stated.
Miller stated inner work from the division reveals that greater than 80 % of worldwide college students at the moment work greater than 20 hours every week.
Waiver of the variety of hours worldwide college students may work was the fitting name given the labor shortages Canada was going through, however the coverage was by no means meant to be everlasting, he stated.
Job vacancies rose to greater than one million within the second quarter of 2022, however have fallen steadily since then because the economic system slows.
Miller stated he’s now contemplating making a everlasting change to the cap that will put him someplace between 20 and 40 hours every week.
“It's unbelievable that somebody can work 40 hours and do a correct program,” Miller stated.
He stated the aim is to create a cap that offers college students the flexibility to get good work expertise and assist them pay the payments, with out compromising their research.
“So what does an affordable variety of hours seem like for somebody learning right here, understanding that they're paying three to 4 instances, generally 5 instances the value of an area pupil?” Miller stated.
“I feel it's over 20 hours.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first printed on February 13, 2024.