Who’s responsible when things fail to go according to plan? That is the question at the heart of separate international student protests that have begun to take hold across Canada. From Manitoba in the Canadian prairies, to Prince Edward Island on Canada’s Atlantic coast, to larger urban areas like the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), local authorities are struggling to manage international student expectations related to permanent settlement in Canada. Large volumes of graduates with post-grad work status set on expiry are frustrated that ambitions of obtaining permanent status remain unfulfilled. Canada’s International Study Program appears set for a reckoning.
The Koala News interviewed Manpreet Singh, one of the original protest organizers in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where hundreds of international graduates and supporters, have gathered to protest what they view as exploitation and misdirection.
“I agree, there is no obligation to grant everyone who comes to (study in) Canada Permanent Residency, but we were in the game before the change of rules was implemented. The province had rules, the province changed the rules without any notification. No notice was given” said Singh.
The changes Mr. Singh refers to started with the addition (and subsequent increases) of point scores required to be meet applicant eligibility requirements for several of PEI’s provincial nomination programs. Then, in February of 2024 the pause on nominations issued to sales and food service employees, in combination with a decision to reduce the volume of provincial selections for Permanent Residence, by 25% from 2023 (2,100) – to only 1,600 in 2024. In a news conference in February Jenn Redmond, P.E.I.’s Minister of Workforce, Advanced Learning and Population, and P.E.I. Premier Dennis King, made the reduction announcements citing housing shortages, and re-alignment with labour market priorities.
In Canada, the federal government punches the bulk of Canada’s total Permanent Residency tickets (485,000, 2024 target), but leaves about a quarter of those selections to provinces (110,000, 2024 target) through established agreements. Each province is free to design its own nomination pathways, as it deems appropriate, to select immigrants that meet local priorities.
According to data obtained by CBC news from Prince Edward Island, one in four nominations issued by the province in 2023 were granted to people with occupations in food service and accommodations. A further 10 per cent had experience in retail. Other government officials have stated higher proportions, and a need to support the islands (largely) seasonal tourism industry.
Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province in terms of both size and total population (under 180,000), is a remote, mainly rural province on Canada’s East Coast. As a consequence, PEI has had a difficult time attracting new immigrants, which has tended to result in lower bar eligibility requirements for its provincial nominations programs (PNP).
But that has changed in recent years, as large volumes of international graduates fleeing from intense post-graduate competition for limited PR spots available in Ontario, in search of more accessible pathways. In 2022 the Conference Board of Canada published a study “From Student to Immigrant?” which showed “more than half of international students who studied in Ontario and were nominated for the PNP were selected by another province.”
“PEI is one of the only provinces in Canada to allow large volumes of unskilled immigrants to be selected for nomination.” said a local immigration consultant who did not want to be named (due to local sensitivities). Large volumes of international graduates started showing up here, mainly from Ontario, in about 2018. Many seemed to have pre-arranged jobs at local fast-food restaurants like Tim Hortons. The volume has only gone up since” added the consultant.
According to data by Statistics Canada the province has only been able to manage a 30% five-year provincial immigrant retention rate, the lowest in Canada. Within five years of attracting provincial support for Permanent Residency about 70% have relocated elsewhere in Canada.
When program revisions started occurring to PEI’s PNP system in the summer of 2023, Manpreet Singh, the protest organizer, said graduates did contact the local PNP government office. Concern grew that despite the fact graduates had invested time on their limited duration Post Grad Work permits (PGWP) in retail and food service jobs, it seemed the province was moving to shut them out of the very pathways they were pursuing, leaving not enough time to adjust.
“The first thing they said to us was, if we were in your shoes – we would wait. Then, as we continued to raise our voice, they told us we are working on it, we will take care of you guys that are already here.” said Manpreet, confirming the messaging was from an employee of the government to Prince Edward Island but did not cite specific names. “They kept those working in sales and service sector jobs in false hope, false promises.” The government of Prince Edward Island was contacted for comment, but declined to provided responses.
Marpreet Singh pointed to the resolution of a similar issue in Manitoba recently. Protests in that province, where fewer international graduates than expected have received nominations, (due in part due to competing selection priorities and administrative processing issues) were resolved through special negotiations between the Federal and provincial government. Federal Immigration Minister Mark Miller agreed to the public policy extension of 6,700 work permits on the condition that those granted the extensions would be incorporated into Manitoba’s nomination numbers over the next two years.
“We did a case study on Manitoba, most of the people that were waiting for draws got their work permits extended, and the people who were waiting got their rights, and the same thing is happening in PEI right now” noted Singh.
PEI government officials are aware of the sensitivity. In early reporting on the protest, there was a mention for the potential for a hunger strike, but in our interview, Singh clarified this method of protest had not been finally decided upon. The political sensitivities of the protests also drew the involvement of third-party organizations. The Communist Party and protest orientated student organizations like the Montreal Youth Student Organization (MYSO) were notably in attendance. Increasingly, there have been demands by student organizations like Migrant Students United that all landed students in Canada should be granted Permanent Residency. The right wing media also showed up to fan flames of anti-immigration sentiment, while islanders (the colloquial expression for local residents) took to Reddit to express their sentiments.
In 2024, IRCC moved to “cap” international student intake by allocating a specific number of new study permit applications to each province. Although, there are exemptions for graduate studies and K-12, the non-exempt student application cap number in PEI is just over 2,300 per year, a number that is only slightly higher than the maximum number of provincial nomination spots the federal government has allowed the province, should PEI seek to return to those levels. However, that does not consider the influx of graduates from other provinces, nor does it account for space to transition temporary foreign workers in PEI to Permanent Residents, nor does it allow quota space to transition other specific types of skilled workers the government of PEI has been recruiting from Dubai, Singapore, UK and Ireland.
In Canada post grad work permits are issued for 1–3-year durations. However, IRCC had issued two consecutive, bulk 18-month extensions to PGWP permits during COVID 19, which has only amplified competition for limited PR spots amongst recent grads. IRCC has made it clear that no more such extensions are forthcoming, as the number of Non-Permanent Residents (NPR) in Canada has set record volumes and become a hot button political issue. Currently there are thought to be over 2.2 million NPRs in Canada, 1.5 million of them being international students and graduates.
The volume of students coming to study in Canada, originating in markets focused on edu-immigration (perceived student to Permanent resident pathways), has led to record growth in Canada’s edu-export industry since 2016. The volume of students studying in Canada has increased from 400,000 (2016) to well over 1,000,000 (2023) yet growth in Permanent Residence targets, which have now been frozen by Federal parliament, have not kept pace.
An internal department summary of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) staff communication to senior Department officials (obtained via ATIA 2022) detailed concern:
“People need to know and understand the risk of their investment in Canada. At minimum cautionary words on the IRCC website should clearly report, using plain language, the risk of an expectation of Permanent Residence. The higher the number of foreign students (and foreign workers) … the lower the chances for Permanent Residence.”
Two years later, no such warnings have appeared on IRCC’s website.
IRCC is expected to announce further updates to Canada’s Post Graduate Work Program coinciding with a 10-year program review.
The next version of Canada’s International Education Strategy is due shortly, the current version expired on March 31, 2024.
