Migrants Face Cold, Perilous Crossing From Canada to New York

2024/02/12 Leave a comment

The numbers that help explain the expansion of the STCA to the length of the border, not only a Canadian concern:

…Officials at the northern border recorded 191,603 encounters with people crossing into the United States in 2023, a 41 percent increase from 2022 — though still a small number in comparison with the more than two million people apprehended on the southern border last year.

And while the vast majority of those migrants presented themselves at official ports of entry to request asylum, a growing number were caught after crossing illegally into the United States, sometimes guided by smugglers.

More than 12,200 people were apprehended crossing illegally from Canada last year, a 241 percent jump from the 3,578 arrested the previous year. Most of them were Mexicans, who can fly to Canada without a visa and may prefer the northern border to avoid the cartels that exploit migrants in their country.

The phenomenon has transformed a 295-mile border area along northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire into a hot spot of migration: About 70 percent of the illegal crossings in 2023 happened on this stretch, known as the Swanton Sector.

Source: Migrants Face Cold, Perilous Crossing From Canada to New York

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Quebec: Avec la baisse d’étudiants indiens, les collèges privés meurent à petit feu

2024/02/12 Leave a comment

Likely similar to what will happen elsewhere in Canada:

Battant des records d’inscriptions pendant la pandémie, les étudiants étrangers, surtout indiens, ont aujourd’hui déserté les collèges privés non subventionnés, a constaté Le Devoir. Acculés à la faillite, ces établissements disent avoir été décimés par la nouvelle mesure d’immigration du gouvernement du Québec, qui a coupé l’accès au permis de travail postdiplôme.

« Notre réseau est en train de mourir », a laissé tomber Ginette Gervais, présidente de l’Association des collèges privés non subventionnés du Québec (ACPNS). « Certains vont tirer leur épingle du jeu, mais ceux qui s’étaient tournés vers l’international pour avoir plus de clientèle vont avoir du mal. »

Selon des données fournies par le ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI), le nombre d’étudiants étrangers fréquentant ces collèges est en chute libre. Alors qu’ils étaient plus de 10 000 pendant les années de la pandémie — avec un record d’inscrits de 19 000 en 2020-2021 —, ils étaient à peine plus de 1300 à la rentrée scolaire de 2023-2024. 

Les étudiants d’origine indienne, qui constituaient alors plus de 85 % de la clientèle étrangère, n’en représentent plus que 5 %. En effet : seulement 78 étudiants indiens étaient inscrits dans ces collèges privés à l’automne dernier alors qu’ils ont déjà été plus de 17 000.

Cette baisse coïncide avec la décision prise en 2022 par les ex-ministres de l’Enseignement supérieur et de l’Immigration, Danielle McCann et Jean Boulet, qui avaient convaincu Ottawa de réserver l’accès au permis de travail postdiplôme uniquement aux immigrants diplômés d’un programme d’étude subventionné.  Entrée en vigueur le 1er septembre dernier, la nouvelle mesure a ainsi coupé l’accès à un permis de travail qui pouvait éventuellement mener à la résidence permanente.

Selon le MIFI, ce changement visait à protéger « l’intégrité » en lien avec le recrutement de ces étudiants étrangers, et à contrer des « stratagèmes d’immigration » confirmés par une enquête du ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur. « Plusieurs établissements privés, en grande majorité anglophones, servaient de passerelle à la résidence permanente et au permis de travail pour des ressortissants indiens et chinois », a-t-on affirmé au cabinet de la ministre de l’Immigration. Des médias, dont Le Devoir, avaient levé le voile sur les pratiques douteuses de certains de ces établissements et des problèmes liés à la qualité de l’enseignement.

Une mesure qui fait mal

Ginette Gervais, de l’ACPNS, l’affirme sans équivoque : la mesure de Québec a été « le premier coup » donné à la trentaine d’établissements privés qu’elle représente. « La perte du permis de travail postdiplôme a causé beaucoup de dommages », dit-elle, en mentionnant que la goutte qui a fait déborder le vase est l’exigence de la connaissance du français pour obtenir une attestation d’études collégiales (AEC). 

« S’ils n’ont plus d’étudiants, ça va être difficile pour les collèges de survivre. » Depuis les dix dernières années, devant la diminution du nombre d’inscrits québécois, ces collèges s’étaient mis au recrutement international. « Tout le monde, même les universités et les cégeps, s’était tourné vers l’international. Et nous, on a bénéficié du fait qu’on offrait des formations plus courtes. » 

Président de Collège Canada, qui possède cinq campus partout au Québec, Cyrus Shani ne peut que constater que d’enlever l’accès au permis de travail a fait très mal. « L’impact est immense », a-t-il confié au Devoir. « On avait 5000 étudiants internationaux et locaux, mais depuis les changements, on est tombé à 300 ! »

Fondé en 1976, son collège a d’abord été une école de langues avant d’obtenir en 2003 un permis pour donner des formations de niveau collégial. « Mes collèges ne sont pas rentables. Mais j’ai d’autres compagnies, j’ai une clinique aussi, et c’est ce qui me permet de sauver mes activités d’enseignement », a expliqué M. Shani.

Il dit ne pas en vouloir au gouvernement, mais plutôt aux collèges et aux agences de recrutement qui ont nui. Certains actionnaires de la firme de recrutement Rising Phoenix International avaient d’ailleurs fait l’objet d’une enquête par l’Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC). « La réglementation, c’est une bonne chose », convient-il. Sauf qu’elle a mené à l’agonie de nombreux établissements qui ne le méritaient pas, selon lui, et que cela prive le gouvernement « de millions en retombées économiques ».

Un collège fermé

L’Institut supérieur d’informatique, qui a offert des formations de niveau collégial pendant 25 ans, a été contraint de fermer ses portes en novembre 2022. « On s’est accroché aussi longtemps qu’on a pu », a dit Henriette Morin, qui dirigeait le collège. Plusieurs difficultés, notamment un litige avec Rising Phoenix International, ont sapé toutes les ressources financières de l’école qui a dû faire faillite. « On a fait le maximum pour que les étudiants puissent récupérer leur argent », a tenu à préciser Mme Morin.

Le resserrement autour de l’octroi du permis de travail n’est pas étranger aux problèmes vécus. « Tout ça est lié », note-t-elle. Le fait que son établissement ait tenté de recruter des étudiants indiens, dont l’afflux massif soulevait plusieurs questions au sein du gouvernement, n’a pas aidé. « Qui sait ce qui serait arrivé si on avait tenté de recruter des étudiants en Afrique francophone et au Maghreb. Mais on leur accordait beaucoup moins facilement de visa. »

Pour la présidente de l’ACPNS, les collèges privés non subventionnés n’auront d’autres choix que de se redéfinir et trouver de nouveaux marchés. « Mais ça ne se fait pas en claquant des doigts, soutient Ginette Gervais. On a bien essayé d’expliquer notre réalité [au gouvernement] et les impacts que [ses décisions] ont eus sur nos activités, mais on a très peu d’écoute. »

Si les collèges privés non subventionnés sont « morts » dans leur forme actuelle, ils devront se réinventer, croit aussi Cyrus Shani, de Collège Canada. « En attendant, on vit au jour le jour et on espère que Québec va faire des changements qui vont aider les bons collèges, ceux qui contribuent réellement à la société québécoise. »

Source: Avec la baisse d’étudiants indiens, les collèges privés meurent à petit feu

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In Bid to Curb Immigration, France to Scrap Birthright Citizenship in Mayotte

2024/02/12 Leave a comment

Always found French overseas territories odd and suspect that other overseas territories may also be vulnerable to losing this birthright, despite the official denial:

Children of immigrants born in Mayotte, the French overseas territory situated between Madagascar and the African mainland, will no longer automatically become French citizens, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late on Sunday.

“It will no longer be possible to become French if one is not the child of French parents”, Darmanin told journalists upon his arrival on the island, announcing the scrapping of birthright citizenship there – a first in recent French history.

Located close to the impoverished Comoro islands off the East African coast, the former French colony has become the centre of fierce social unrest, with many residents blaming undocumented immigration for the deteriorating conditions.

Much poorer than mainland France, Mayotte has been shaken by gang violence and social unrest for decades. The situation has recently worsened amid a water shortage.

Since January, island residents have been staging strikes and erecting roadblocks to protest against what they say are unacceptable living conditions, paralyzing large parts of local infrastructure.

The reform, which Darmanin said was the idea of French President Emmanuel Macron, will require a change of the constitution.

It comes less than three weeks after France’s highest court scrapped large parts of a new immigration law designed to toughen access to welfare benefits for foreigners and curb the number of new arrivals into the country.

Immigration is a hot-button issue in France, one of Europe’s strongholds for far right anti-immigration parties.

Darmanin said, however, that “there is no question of doing this for other territories of the Republic.”

Source: In Bid to Curb Immigration, France to Scrap Birthright Citizenship in Mayotte

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Keller: On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest

2024/02/10 Leave a comment

Nails it (money quote: “Even the government appears to have been largely unaware of its own actions, and even more ignorant of their consequences.”:

…When government makes policy, it usually consults with all of the stakeholders. It takes notes. It aims to please. And on temporary immigration, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall because he did exactly what all the king’s stakeholders and all the king’s lobbyists told him to do.

The business lobby said there was an economy-wide labour shortage – there isn’t, but sit through enough business stakeholder meetings and you’ll believe it. The solution was unlimited recruitment of low-wage overseas workers.

Colleges and universities said they needed an ever-growing number of student visas, their provincial masters mostly agreed, and business applauded because visa students were another low-wage work stream. A Quebec government that loudly demanded lower immigration quietly pressed for ever more temporary foreign workers. And progressive activists pushed for the lowering of all barriers to coming to Canada or remaining.

Year after year, the Liberals gave the stakeholders what they wanted. In a government-as-client-service model, it read like a success story.

But the sum of a bunch of narrow special interests does not add up to the national interest. It’s a pity this government didn’t figure that out sooner.

Source: On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest

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Is a waning Canadian dream fuelling reverse migration in Punjab?

2024/02/10 Leave a comment

Of note:

It’s hard to miss the ardour of Punjab’s migrant ambitions when driving through its fertile rural plains.

Billboards promising easy immigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK jut out through ample mustard fields.

Off the highways, consultancies offer English language coaching to eager youth.

Single-storey brick homes double up as canvasses for hand-painted mural advertisements promising quick visas. And in the town of Bathinda, hundreds of agents jostle for space on a single narrow street, pledging to speed up the youth’s runaway dreams.

For over a century, this province in India’s northwest has seen waves of overseas migration; from the Sikh soldiers inducted into the British Indian Army travelling to Canada, through to rural Punjabis settling in England post-independence.

But some, especially from Canada, are now choosing to come back home.

One of those is 28-year-old Balkar, who returned in early 2023 after just one year in Toronto. Citizenship was his ultimate goal when he left his little hamlet of Pitho in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. His family mortgaged their land to fund his education.

But his Canadian dream quickly lost its allure a few months into his life there.

“Everything was so expensive. I had to work 50 hours every week after college, just to survive,” he told the BBC. “High inflation is making many students leave their studies.”

Balkar now runs an embroidery business from a small room on one side of the expansive central courtyard in his typical Punjabi home. He also helps on his family’s farm to supplement his income.

Opportunities for employment are few and far between in these rural areas, but technology has allowed entrepreneurs like him to conquer the tyranny of distance. Balkar gets the bulk of his business through Instagram.

“I have a good life here. Why should I face hardships there when I can live at home and make good money?” he asks.

The BBC spoke to at least half a dozen reverse migrants in Punjab who shared similar sentiments.

It was also a common refrain in the scores of videos on YouTube shared by Indians who had chosen to abandon their life in Canada and return home. There was a stark difference one young returnee told the BBC between the “rosy picture” immigration agents painted and the rough reality of immigrant life in Toronto and Vancouver.

Immigration services are a big business in Punjab

The “Canada craze” has let up a bit – and especially so among well-off migrants who have a fallback option at home, says Raj Karan Brar, an immigration agent in Bathinda who helps hundreds of Punjabis get permanent residencies and student visas every year.

The desire for a Canadian citizenship remains as strong as ever though among middle- and lower middle-class clients in rural communities.

But viral YouTube videos of students talking about the difficulty in finding jobs and protests over a lack of housing and work opportunities has created an air of nervousness among these students, say immigration agents.

There was a 40% decline in applications from India for Canadian study permits in the second half of 2023, according to one estimate. This was, in part, also due to the ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada over allegations Indian agents were involved in the murder of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

There are also hints of deeper cultural factors at play, for a waning Canadian dream among an older generation of Indian migrants.

Karan Aulakh, who spent nearly 15 years in Edmonton and achieved career and financial success, left his managerial job for a comfortable rural life in Khane ki Daab, the village where he was born in 1985.

He told the BBC he was upset by LGBT-inclusive education policies in Canada and its 2018 decision to legalise recreational cannabis.

Incompatibility with the Western way of life, a struggling healthcare system, and better economic prospects in India were, he said, key reasons why many older Canadian Indians are preparing to leave the country.

“I started an online consultancy – Back to the Motherland – a month and a half ago, to help those who want to reverse migrate. I get at least two to three calls every day, mostly from people in Canada who want to know what job opportunities there are in Punjab and how they can come back,” said Mr Aulakh.

For a country that places such a high value on immigration, these trends are “concerning” and are “being received with a bit of a sting politically”, says Daniel Bernhard of the Institute of Canadian Citizenship, an immigration advocacy group.

A liberalised immigration regime has been Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature policy to counter slowing economic growth and a rapidly aging population.

According to Canada’s statistics agency, immigration accounted for 90% of Canada’s labour force growth and 75% of population growth in 2021.

International students contribute to over C$20bn ($14.7bn; £11.7bn) to Canada’s economy each year, a bulk of them Indians who now make up one in five recent immigrants to the country.

India was also Canada’s leading source for immigration in 2022.

The numbers of those leaving are still small in absolute terms with immigration levels at all-time highs in Canada – the country welcomed nearly half a million new migrants each year over the past few years.

But the rate of reverse migration hit a two decade high in 2019, signalling that migrants were “losing confidence” in the country said Mr Bernhard.

Country specific statistics for such emigrants, or reverse migrants, are not available.

But official data obtained by Reuters shows between 80,000 and 90,000 immigrants left Canada in 2021 and 2022 and either went back to their countries, or onward elsewhere.

Some 42,000 people departed in the first half of 2023.

Fewer permanent residents are also going on to become Canadian citizens, according to census data cited by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. In 2001, 75% of those eligible became citizens. Two decades later, it was 45%.

Canada needs to “restore the value of its citizenship,” said Mr Bernhard.

It comes as Canada debates its aggressive immigration targets given country’s struggle to absorb more people.

A recent report from National Bank of Canada economists cautioned that the population growth was putting pressure on its already tight housing supply and strained healthcare system.

Canada has seen a population surge – an increase of 1.2 million people in 2023 – driven mostly by newcomers.

The report argued that growth needed to be slowed to an annual increase of up to 500,000 people in order to preserve or increase the standard of living.

There appears to have been a tacit acceptance of this evaluation by policymakers.

Mr Trudeau’s Liberal government recently introduced a cap on international student permits that would result in a temporary decrease of 35% in approved study visas.

It’s a significant policy shift that some believe may end up further reducing Canada’s appeal amid a wave of reverse migrations.

Source: Is a waning Canadian dream fuelling reverse migration in Punjab?

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Century Initiative: Yes, immigration has weighed on the economy, but it is not the enemy

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

The latest in weak arguments by the Century Initiative, conveniently neglecting their role in advocating for high immigration without consideration of the impacts on housing, healthcare and infrastructure, their scorecard notwithstanding. 

No recognition of the time lags between immigration level increases and building needed infrastructure. 

Hard for organizations to pivot when public commentary and opinion shifts and CI, like others, has been caught flat-footed by this change.

A more credible approach for CI would be advocating for a pause in planned increases in immigration, and caps on temporary workers (the government at last is doing so with international students). 

And seriously, considering immigration and infrastructure as the “two pillars … as the lifeblood of modern economies” without technology and productivity, along with essential social and public services, is perhaps telling:

Two pillars can be characterized as the lifeblood of modern economies – immigration and infrastructure.

Ideally, they’re dance partners – one always moving attentively in response to the other. A careful, constructed harmony.

In reality, they can and dofall badly out of step.

Right now, Canadians are experiencing the pain of that reality. Homes are desperately needed; too few are being built. Hospital wings and hospital beds are called for, none can be found. Overcrowded schools, roads and transit systems require renovation, and no workers can be hired to repair them.

This challenging reality is affecting our attitudes. Research shows declining public support for Canada’s immigration levels. But, crucially, that same research also illustrates this waning support is tied to that very same pain and frustration – to crushed dreams of home ownership, interminable wait times and unpaved roads.

We have not fallen into a pit of nativism. But we are falling into an overriding sense of pessimism, and the Band-Aid solutions that sense so readily provides. And, by far, the very worst is to simply curtail population growth.

Easy answer. Bad idea in both the short term and the long. Because this is also the answer that would result in an aging, less-skilled work force, less foreign investment, less diversity and less influence on the global stage.

The more ambitious, yet critical, task is building and planning for growth. And that requires us to rethink our approach to housing and infrastructure.

I say “rethink” because, as much as anything, it’s a question of mentality. The orders of magnitude we’re talking about are monumental. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says Canada needs to tripleits homebuilding output by the end of 2030 to restore affordability.

On this front, the federal government’s recent pledge to revive its wartime homebuilding strategy by adopting a catalogue of preapproved home designs to reduce the costs and approval timelines is welcome news.

A wartime effort might sound hyperbolic. It’s not. It expresses the urgency of the problem rhetorically, but it also suggests the definitive, long-term infrastructure planning needed to marshal and free up concrete action – planning that depends on immigration to succeed.

As with any wartime effort, we won’t fix the problem with one department or initiative alone. We need a sustained push from all levels of government and partners in the homebuilding industry, finance and not-for-profit sectors.

While many of the most cumbersome roadblocks to construction exist at the municipal level, the federal government must use its cheque book and political capital to eliminate barriers. Legalizing six-plexes as-of-right, lowering development costs, cutting red tape and prioritizing housing near city-led developments such as libraries, community centres and subway stations are all critical priorities. Early “strings attached” housing agreements between the federal government and municipalities including Kelowna, B.C., Calgary and Toronto are a promising start.

It also means working with the provinces on skilled trades strategies that simplify pathways into home construction, both for newcomers and long-time residents looking to contribute to the effort. And it means reviewing public land from top to bottom, with an eye toward identifying opportunities to increase affordable housing stock.

We can’t blame the problem exclusively on land speculation, but should use available tools to ensure construction permits result in quick development. This may include the adoption of “use it or lose it” levies and enhanced efforts to combat money laundering in the housing market. Governments should invest at a level that matches the urgency of this crisis with stronger commitments to subsidize affordable, non-profit and co-op housing development and operation.

Like any wartime effort, there isn’t a silver bullet that will make the problem go away. The key is using every tool at our disposal.

Such an approach is not only essential for housing supply, but for the infrastructure projects that must accompany population growth. Canada needs widespread broadband coverage, new bridges, wastewater treatment facilities, and public transit. While, on the housing front, we have the clear political will to execute a wartime strategy, we must continually reproduce the imperatives of co-operation, efficiency and determination this effort represents.

George Bernard Shaw once observed, “Reformers have the idea that change can be achieved by brute sanity.” It’s a pithy challenge to the fallacy of rationalism, that all can be set right by the seemingly logical. And the temptation toward the brutishly sane is, in this case: cut out immigration and thus cut out the problem. It’s a line of thinking all too real in recent weeks.

But, in today’s Canada, calling for an end to immigration, or a vast reduction in our targets, is like trying to fix an engineering problem by standing on the sidelines and calling it a problem of overengineering. It’s unhelpful. It’s outside the bounds of the functional. And, worst of all, it doesn’t solve the problem. It doesn’t result in a country that can compete in a highly competitive world, support its seniors, or promise a better future for the next generation.

It doesn’t result in a country that will thrive.

Recent conversations about immigration levels should be a wakeup call – not to try and cut the problem in half, parse it, or leave it for tomorrow, but to face it down with uncommon planning, investment and effort.

Lisa Lalande is chief executive officer of Century Initiative.

Source: Yes, immigration has weighed on the economy, but it is not the enemy

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Organized crime, including Mexican cartels, smuggling migrants to Canada

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

Foreshadowing likely re-imposition of Mexican visa requirement?:

Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Commons that the government is looking at measures to “tighten the screws” on steeply rising migration to Canada, including examining whether to re-impose visas to visitors from Mexico.

“The flows that are coming into the country – regardless of the country of origin – particularly in terms of asylum seekers and irregular migration are very high,” he said. “I think it is important to take a look at our public policies to see where we can tighten that up – and that includes Mexico.”

Conservative immigration critic Tom Kmiec said there had been a surge in asylum claims from Mexicans to more than 14,000 a year, since the visa requirement was lifted in 2016. He pressed the minister on why action has not yet been taken to reimpose visas, with 70 per cent of Mexican asylum claims rejected.

Mr. Miller said he did not want to “downplay the severity of the issue” and that the acceptance rates from asylum seekers from Mexico were much lower overall than those from other countries. But he said Mexico is one of Canada’s most important trading partners and the issue involved “a process internally as well as with the Government of Mexico.”

Source: Organized crime, including Mexican cartels, smuggling migrants to Canada

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Supreme Court slammed after anti-racism advocates ‘disinvited’ from presentation over posts on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

I check the twitter feeds of two of the complainants, “El Jones, a poet, activist and political science professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, and DeRico Symonds, director of justice strategy with the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute,” definitely activists, the former particularly so given virtually all of her tweets pertain to Israel/Gaza, but did not cross the line IMO.

The irony, of course, is that practitioners of cancel culture are surprised and outraged when they become victims themselves. A lesson here, one that I doubt will be learned:

…There has been widespread debate in recent months about when anti-Israel sentiment crosses over into antisemitism, and about the boundaries of acceptable political advocacy.

University of Waterloo political science Prof. Emmett Macfarlane, who has written several books on the top court , said it is important to know the details about the online posts that were red-flagged, and that the court’s lack of transparency about the content of those posts is a concern for him.

Even so, he said the Supreme Court of Canada was in a “severe double-bind” from the outset: it faces the same workplace challenges in navigating conflicting views among employees as other Canadian workplaces, and in respecting honest concerns that some people may feel “like they are being discriminated against by virtue of people who have expressed certain views.”

“Layered on top of that,” he said, is the court’s “broader institutional concern with being above reproach politically and being perceived as politically neutral.” Once the court became aware of views that someone tagged as controversial, he said, it was in a “no-win situation.”

“You either proceed and allow all the people to come to speak, and then you could get accused of having a bias by allowing people who have been controversial online to speak, or you do what they did and uninvited people, but then you get accused of bias on the other side.”

Macfarlane said it’s not just a question of “de-platforming” guest speakers, or “the potential for hate speech and all that” — which he said is not easy to grapple with at the best of times — but that the Supreme Court faces the added challenge of being “very sensitive to perceptions that it is being politicized.”

For the anti-Black racism researchers, who noted to the Star that this is Black History Month in Canada, the court erred on the wrong side….

Source: Supreme Court slammed after anti-racism advocates ‘disinvited’ from presentation over posts on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Here’s how Canada will decide which colleges and universities can be trusted with international students

2024/02/09 Leave a comment

Leaked draft plan. Would likely be simpler just to make the main criteria being a public institution without satellite strip mall campuses…:

…Although the department refused to say if the plan has been updated since it was first presented in August, it offered a first glimpse at what precisely immigration officials were going to look at when assessing the schools’ legitimacy and capacity to bring in international students.

“The rapid growth in intake has disrupted processing times and service standards,” said the 11-page proposal, obtained by the Star. “There are concerns that many (designated learning institutions) have become increasingly dependent on international students for tuition revenue, in some cases, not providing international students a positive education experience in Canada.

“There is a belief that processing times are impacting Canada’s ability to attract top international students, and that, compounded with the reported cases of international student exploitation, this may harm Canada’s reputation as a destination of choice.”

It said the department had developed a matrix that could be used to determine which institutions would be eligible. The index would be based on seven indicators, including an institution’s:

  • Percentage of students who remain in the original program after their first year in Canada;
  • Percentage of students who complete their program within the expected length of study;
  • Percentage of total revenue that’s derived from international enrolment; 
  • Dollar value and percentage of total scholarships and grants to students from less developed countries;
  • Dollar value in mental health support as well as career and immigration counselling per international student versus the average tuition they pay;
  • Total number and percentage of international students living in housing they administered; and
  • Average teacher-student ratio for the 10 courses with the highest international enrolment.

All in all, said the plan, the information will help ensure the student intake is sustainable, only “genuine” learners are recruited, high-quality education is supported, and graduates demonstrate strong outcomes….

Critic Earl Blaney said the trusted regime is a step in the right direction, but he is doubtful whether it could be implemented in time for the fall semester. He says few institutions would have all the data handily available and the compilation process must be standardized to make the information comparable and meaningful from coast to coast.

Currently there are more than 1,500 designated learning institutions authorized to accept international students, though not all are in post-secondary education. 

“They’re trying to vet the quality of the institution and the student experience, which I definitely support,” said Blaney, an education agent and international education policy analyst based in London, Ont. 

“There’s a lot to figure out here. I just don’t think they had time to implement something that would not be criticized or ridiculed, essentially when they weren’t getting the data that they needed to start the evaluation process.”

According to the plan, in assessing trusted institutions, officials would also rely on the Immigration Department’s own data such as study permit approval rate, “adverse outcomes” of students and diversity of their country of origin at a school. They would also examine how many graduates from the institution become permanent residents, as well as their language proficiency and earnings when they apply for immigration. 

Given that international students are used increasingly to serve Canada’s labour market needs, Blaney said the trusted scheme should also look at what programs they enrol in at a school to ensure those churning out talents that the country needs are prioritized.

source: Here’s how Canada will decide which colleges and universities can be trusted with international students

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Looking for an ‘IELTS clear girl’: Why Canada’s international student reforms may spoil these kinds of marriages in India

2024/02/08 Leave a comment

Interesting read and suspect more of these stories will come out as the new restrictions on international students come into effect:

At first glance, it looks just like any matrimonial profile, detailing the age, height and education background of the boy looking for a match. But then there’s a twist: Only an “IELTS clear girl” should bother responding.

In another ad, a young woman with a bachelor’s degree in science is looking for a groom interested in moving to Canada and willing to bear all expenses. And her biggest asset, as advertised: “IELTS 7 band.”

IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System, one of the world’s most popular English proficiency tests for higher education and immigration — and an entry requirement to come to Canada. International students need a minimum overall score of 6 in writing, reading, listening and speaking English for admission to undergraduate and diploma programs in this country.

A perfect match would mean the bride could get the boy’s family to pay for her tuition and living costs of studying abroad. In exchange, the groom could come to Canada on an open work permit, accompanying the spouse. And they’d both hope to one day earn their permanent residence here.

“These are real marriages and there’s nothing illegal about it,” said Rajinder Taggar, an investigative reporter based in Chandigarh, India. “You can find these matrimonial ads very easily, in all the newspapers. People make no secret about it.”

But the practice of so-called “IELTS marriages” is coming to an end, quickly, after Canada’s announcement last week to tighten up the international student program. Among the many changes made by Ottawa is stop issuing work permits to the spouses of international students in undergraduate and diploma programs.

“The boy marries the girl and his family puts money in her studies, so the spouse can come,” Vinay Hari, a prominent education agent based in Jalandhar, told the Star.  “Now that will stop. The girl will not get the money for the education in Canada.

“They will file divorces and their relationships will be terminated. It’s already happening.”

Almost 40 per cent of Canada’s international students these days come from India, where prospective students are being hardest hit by Canada’s recent changes to the international student program.

Last month, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced a plan to slash the number of new study permits issued across Canada this year by 35 per cent from last year’s level, to 364,000, while leaving the number of applicants accepted in master’s and doctoral programs, as well as those admitted to primary and secondary schools, uncapped.

Other new or recent measures include:

• Effective on Jan. 1, doubling the cost-of-living financial requirement for study permit applicants from $10,000 to $20,635 in addition to their first year of tuition and travel costs;

• Starting Sept. 1, stopping to issue post-graduation work permits to international students who complete programs provided under so-called Public College-Private Partnerships;

• In the weeks ahead, the spouses of most international students will no longer be granted work permits, with the exception of those studying in graduate schools or in a professional program such as medicine or law.

These three measures are intended to raise the bar and plug the incentives for people to take advantage of the international student program in what Miller has described as a “backdoor entry” into Canada.

According to Taggar, the Indian journalist, IELTS marriages have been happening for some time, but they became more common with Canada’s open policy to welcome international students and the marketing by unscrupulous agents to promote international studies as an immigration scheme.

“Girls work harder and are smarter. And they pass the IELTS exam,” said Taggar, who has published in the Tribune, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and Times of India. “Some of them come from poor families but they are good at studies. The boys’ families will pay for the education. They want to come to Canada and become permanent residents. That’s all.”

Removing the spousal work permit for students in undergraduate and college programs, which are normally cheaper and shorter than postgraduate studies, would deter that kind of exploitation of the international student program, he said.

Hari, the education agent, said he has received more than 100 inquiries in the past week from prospective students who asked to withdraw their applications for programs delivered under public-private college partnerships because they will no longer grant postgraduation work permits.

These partnerships are mostly between smaller public colleges in remote communities in the province and private colleges in Greater Toronto, where international students prefer to live — prompted by the public institutions’ need to stay afloat amid declining domestic enrolment and provincial funding cut.

The business model allows taxpayer-funded colleges to provide curriculum at a fee to private career college partners, who can hire their own non-unionized instructors to deliver the academic programs in the region.

Graduates from the private colleges then get a public college credential, which made them eligible for a postgraduate work permit as a pathway for permanent residence.

After the Jan. 22 changes, “they told us, ‘Sir, I don’t want to go to a (public-private partnership college). Transfer my application to the (public college) main campus,'” Hari said. “They don’t want to go to Hanson College in Toronto or Brampton. They want to go to Cambrian College in Sudbury.”

Over the last five years, said Hari, Canada has gained a bad reputation in India as a destination for immigration through education. As a result, many Indian students are enrolled in college diploma programs that give them quick access to work permits but won’t necessarily advance their employment and career prospects.

He said serious learners now tend to prefer the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, while those who want to immigrate come to study in Canada.

“Thousands of these students are coming for these general business programs,” said Hari, who has helped more than 11,000 students come to study in Canada in the last 14 years. “Did Canada produce that many businessmen and entrepreneurs?

“This immigration scam has given students the opportunity to work full time. So students are not coming but labourers are coming.“

Hari said many prospective students and their families in India are panicking in the wake of Miller’s announcement because the price tag has now gone even higher, with education agents quickly shifting to promote and market the master’s programs in Canada.

“Canada has to support the quality education. They have to fund public colleges and universities,” he said. “The PPPs have created a mess and I think Canada is now on track again.”

Nitin Chawla, an education agent and immigration consultant based in Ludhiana in Punjab state, said he’s already seeing the impacts of Canada’s new rules as inquiries about Canada have slowed down and most people walking into his office are now exploring the opportunities to study in other countries, such as New Zealand.

While these changes might be good for Canada because they’ll raise the qualifying requirements and help weed out the “weaker” students, Chawla said they are going to have ripple effects on the consulting industry and employment in India, where tens of thousands of people make a living selling immigration to this country.

“Here in Punjab, the first word a baby learns is Canada,” he said. “People will not stop going to Canada, but the number will drop very badly. People have already started withdrawing (visa application) files.”

He predicted many people in India will lose their consulting and recruitment jobs, including some of his 40 staffers, and so will many employed in the postsecondary education sector in Canada.

In a recent entry on his blog, Alex Usher, an expert on higher education, said the federal crackdown on the public-private college partnerships — upwards of 125,000 international students in Greater Toronto — is going to take at least $1.5 billion in revenue out of the hands of Ontario colleges.

“Without the promise of a post-graduation work visa, it is hard to see how those spots are going to stay filled,” wrote Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates. “I’d wager a couple of the northern colleges, who used PPPs as a way to escape the brutal economics of teaching in the more sparsely populated north, will be in need of a bailout soon.”

Source: Looking for an ‘IELTS clear girl’: Why Canada’s international student reforms may spoil these kinds of marriages in India

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