Demand
Permanent Immigration Status for
Migrant
Workers, Refugees and International Students End Exploitation and Abuse of International Students 
On October
20, the Trudeau government lifted travel
restrictions for international students coming to Canada to
study. The only condition is that they hold a valid study permit
and that the Designated Learning Institution they are
enrolled in have a provincially approved COVID-19 readiness
plan. Why is this being done? Over the summer it
was reported that
there has been a 22 per cent decline in government-issued study
permits to foreign students which would affect the budgets of all
universities and colleges in Canada. As governments continue to
underfund public post-secondary institutions in the context of
the anti-social offensive, universities and colleges have become
increasingly dependent on the high tuition fees levied on foreign
students.  For example, at
the University of Toronto (U of T), which promotes
itself worldwide as Canada's premier university, international
students make up fully 30 per cent of the total student body. Most
hope to remain in Canada. They contribute close to $1 billion to
the university's operation, a third of its budget. For the
privilege of attending U of T, an
undergraduate international student pursuing a bachelor's degree
in arts or science pays more than $40,000 a year while a Canadian
student pays $6,200. Typically, international students attending
Canadian universities and colleges pay from two to six times the
tuition fees Canadian students pay for the same programs. In an
interview with the campus newspaper The Varsity in
February 2019, U of T President Meric Gertler said that
international student tuition is priced to cover the "full costs
associated with educating those students," without disclosing
what those "full costs" are.
Currently students
from India, China, the Republic of Korea,
Brazil and Vietnam comprise the largest cohort of international
students in Canada. Migrant Students United, a national defence
organization for international students in Canada, notes that
there are 721,000 study permit holders in Canada as well as an
estimated 500,000 postgraduate work permit holders, who together
contribute close to $30 billion to the Canadian economy. They are
trapped in a racket that the Canadian state has created to ensure
a cheap source of labour for Canadian monopolies and financial
oligarchs, as well as a source of revenue for subsidizing the
operations of Canadian colleges and universities. The Canadian
government, along with post-secondary institutions and
unregulated "consultants" around the world charge students large
amounts of money for the "privilege" of studying in Canada. When
international students arrive in Canada they have to fend
for themselves from day one. The rules and policies governing
international students' ability to work in Canada are
restrictive. In one case, Jobandeep Sandhu, a student from Punjab
studying mechanical engineering at Canadore College, Mississauga
Campus, was pulled over by police while driving a truck from
Montreal to Toronto. That was in December 2017 when he was 10
days away from receiving his diploma. He was subsequently found
to be working more than the 20 hours a week permitted. He had
accumulated nearly $27,000 in fees and other school costs and was
forced to work longer hours. Despite broad opposition, including
a petition delivered to then-Federal Immigration Minister Ahmed
Hussen signed by more than 50,000 people calling on the Canadian
government to allow Sandhu to remain in Canada, he was deported in
June 2019 for "breaking the law."  Statistics Canada
reported in 2019 that international students
who find work after graduation were found to earn less tha their
Canadian counterparts six years after graduation. A 2018 survey
by the Canadian Bureau for International Education found that
close to 60 per cent of international students in Canada surveyed
were unemployed and having difficulty finding work in fields that
would enable them to accumulate enough points to apply for
permanent residency. And this was before COVID-19!
As
Migrant Students United, the Canadian Federation of
Students and other organizations have pointed out, since the
beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, international
students have been further victimized by the total lack of
support from the federal government. Yet, in May this year, in
order to keep fleecing foreign students, Immigration, Refugee and
Citizenship Canada ruled that in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,
international students can study online at Canadian universities
and colleges without affecting their eligibility for a
Post-Graduate Work Permit. This is unconscionable.
The Trudeau Liberals have formalized
the exploitation and abuse of international students in their
International Student Strategy, a five-year plan (2019-2024) to
dramatically increase the number of foreign students in Canada.
When the plan was announced Minister of International Trade
Diversification Jim Carr noted: "International
education is an essential pillar of Canada's
long-term competitiveness. Canadians who study abroad gain
exposure to new cultures and ideas, stimulating innovation and
developing important cross-cultural competencies. Students from
abroad who study in Canada bring those same benefits to our
shores. If they choose to immigrate to Canada, they contribute to
Canada's economic success. Those who choose to return to their
countries become life-long ambassadors for Canada and for
Canadian values." Canadians do not want
international students to be exploited
and abused in the name of enhancing "Canada's long term
competitiveness." They do not want international students to be
uprooted from the nations that raised them and brought to Canada
where their basic rights are denied as they are currently in the
case of the pandemic. It is an abomination to create a pathway to
citizenship that is essentially rigged against the majority of
international students in Canada who, even before COVID-19, were
unable to find the work that would enable them to qualify for
permanent residency and citizenship. The process of citizenship
should begin as soon as international students arrive in
recognition of the fact that they are contributing to Canada from
the moment they come here.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 44 - November 14, 2020
Article Link:
Demand
Permanent Immigration Status for : End Exploitation and Abuse of International Students
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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