Victory in Campaign to Extend Work Permits and Stop Deportations of Foreign Students
November 24, 2020. Toronto rally to stop
deportations of foreign students.
Migrant Students United is celebrating a
victory in their
months-long campaign to stop the deportation of
tens of thousands of
foreign students stranded in Canada during the
COVID-19 pandemic. They
have been fighting for the extension of
Post-Graduate Work Permits
(PGWP) which expired at the end of 2020. On
January 8, Marco Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and
Citizenship, announced
that international students who were unable to
find qualified work due
to the COVID-19 pandemic will be eligible for an
18-month extension of
their permits.
This will allow foreign students who studied
and graduated here to
continue looking for employment in Canada. For
some this means
extending their opportunity to satisfy the
requirements for applying
for permanent resident (PR) status. For others,
it is an opportunity to
earn income, offset their student loan debts,
gain work experience etc.
before returning home.
About 61 per cent of all foreign students
graduating from
post-secondary institutions in Canada planned to
find employment here
before returning home, according to a recent
study of the Canadian
Bureau of International Education. Only about
half (51 per cent) intend
to apply for permanent resident status on the
strength of their studies
and
employment, but only 22 per cent actually
succeed in gaining PR status
through one of these programs.
Canada fell far short on its immigration
targets for 2020 due to the
pandemic and, to make up the numbers, the
federal government is looking
to increase the number of international students
receiving PR.
Inability to secure work due to the COVID-19
pandemic has been
devastating for migrant students. Tens of
thousands of migrant students
who graduate here -- 58,000 in 2019 -- were
facing deportation
because their post-graduate work permits had
expired at the end of 2020.
This is indeed a sweet victory. Organizations
like Migrant Students United fought hard to
achieve it. They
organized rallies, pickets, and petitions. They
lobbied and brought
their case to the attention of the Canadian
public, got trade unions
and other organizations on board.
The fight to affirm the rights of international
students does not
end here. There are nearly 700,000 international
students in Canada on
post-graduate work permits and study permits.
They have already paid
exorbitant tuition fees -- up to six times those
paid by their Canadian
peers. Upon graduation, international students
typically receive lower
salaries -- seven per cent lower on average,
according to Statistics
Canada. Additionally, graduate students work as
teaching and research
assistants and do vital work in other fields but
these labours do not
qualify them to satisfy PR requirements. The
list of the ways in which
international students are shamefully fleeced,
exploited, misused and
denied
their rights by the Canadian government goes on
and on. Furthermore,
during this COVID-19 pandemic, international
student graduates whose
social insurance applications were in process,
numbering in the
thousands, did not receive any financial support
from the federal
government, not even the paltry amounts that
Canadian post-secondary
students got. Many others were unable to get
full time work or
sufficient hours to qualify for Employment
Insurance.
Sarom Rho, National Coordinator of Migrant
Students United, said
their organization is committed to continue the
struggle for justice
and the rights of all. In addition to this
victory in securing work
permit extensions Migrant Students United is
committed to bring about
changes that will ensure real access to PR
(count work that is
part-time in
school and any other occupation towards PR) and
for full and permanent
residency for all migrants; to remove time
limits and industry
restrictions on work; to unite families and
ensure work permits for
family members; to lower tuition and ensure full
access to services
(health care, housing, jobs, scholarships,
pandemic emergency benefits
etc.) for
all international students.
Workers' Forum congratulates Migrant
Students United on this
victory and calls on everyone to join in
supporting its political
organizing for the rights of all.
This article was published in
Number 4 - February 10, 2021
Article Link:
Victory in Campaign to Extend Work Permits and Stop Deportations of Foreign Students
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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