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As a new school year starts, international students and prospective international students say the federal government’s decision to set a cap on the number of student permits for two years are making them tense about their futures.
They say they know the caps will have an impact on the number of students applying to Canadian universities and future job opportunities for international students who are already enrolled in a Canadian institution.
“I feel like [international students] get a hope and dream of looking for a better future and opportunities for themselves, especially in a place like Canada or the U.S., so we make the hard decision to come all the way here, so having this limit is very frustrating,” said María Fernanda Salas Sánchez, president of OLAS (Organization of Latin American Students) and a third-year student in Toronto Metropolitan University’s HR management program from Monterrey, Mexico.
On Jan. 22, 2024, Marc Miller, minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said that the government has set a cap on the number of applications for international student permits for two years in order to stabilize new growth.
According to the IRCC, around 500,000 permits were issued in 2022, a 75 per cent increase from five years prior. The new cap will limit the number of permits issued to 360,000 for the next two years, which is a 35 per cent decrease from the 2022 numbers.
The IRCC says the point of the cap is to combat the rapid increase of international students in Canada trying to take away pressure in health care and housing, among other stressors.
According to International Student Support, TMU has 4,000 international students enrolled in the 2024-25 year, coming from 140 different countries.
“Coming to Canada to study was my biggest dream during freshman year of high school, but after the news broke out I have decided to skip the application all together,” said Shriya Samtani, a grade 12 student in Panama City, Panama.
“I made this decision because I felt like I would be paying all this money to not get the support after graduation,” she said. “I’m scared that I wouldn’t get hired because companies would prefer to hire domestic workers.”
Samtani says the scholarship opportunities also seem to be better elsewhere, including the United States.
“The ones offered in Canada are almost impossible to get or not enough to justify,” she said.
Sánchez says getting accepted into institutions in Canada is going to be a lot harder — especially when students who are already here are struggling to make a life for themselves.
“It is very scary knowing that the plan you have had for yourself for the past three years, getting that resume or getting extra-curricular activities or trying to live in a place that is very expensive, can all go to waste now that it’s going to be more difficult to stay here after graduation” said Sánchez.
Depending on what faculty at TMU you are attending, the cost for international students ranges between $35,063 to $40,485 a year.
“I feel so guilty every time I have to tell my parents that tuition is due,” said Camila Diaz, a first-year University of Toronto student from Argentina.
“I have tried applying to many different jobs but haven’t heard back from any of them.”
Even at TMU, Sánchez says there are more jobs for domestic students than international students.
“It’s really hard to live, trying to look for other resources to get more money, and seeing that the job market is not helping international students,” she said.
“Everything is harder for international students, and I am very concerned about what is in store for my future,” Sánchez. “But I made this decision, and I am going to stick by it and succeed.”
Reporter, On The Record, Fall 2024
