Canada minister expresses concern on ‘integrity’ of student immigration

Marc Miller in an interview with Canada Broadcasting Corporation said that the Canada is concerned about the overall integrity of the system that educates hundreds of thousands of international students and not just the added pressure they put on housing. 

Notably, Canada is on track to welcome 900,000 international students this year, as mentioned by minister Miller. This is the most number of immigration students Canada has seen, and definitely triple the number who entered the country a decade ago.

During the interview Miller pointed out that private and public universities generate C$20-C$30 billion ($14.7-$22.1 billion) per year in revenue on those who come to study from abroad. 

“Some people are making a lot of money out of it legitimately, some people are gaming the system, and my principal concern is with that integrity of the system,” he said, according to a Reuters report.

When asked if the Canadian government is mulling putting a cap on the number of student intake, Millar said, “Just putting a hard cap, which got a lot of public play over the last few days, is not the only solution to this,” Miller said.

Miller was replying to the housing minister saying the government is mulling whether to cap the number of students allowed in each year as a way of easing the housing crunch, but Miller was skeptical.

Meawhile, the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has reportedly planned to implement a new Trusted Institution framework to its student visa programme by 2024.

This framework is a key component of a larger strategy aimed at modernising the International Student Program (ISP) operated by the IRCC.

Updated: 28 Aug 2023, 08:07 PM IST