Muhammad Hassan,18, sits on a weathered couch surrounded by empty chip wrappers, discarded egg cartons and all the shared debris from his three other roommates. He spends his time on campus either going to classes or hanging out with his friends in his dorm room — a typical college student.
Hassan, who arrived in Calgary in December 2023, has been an international student at Mount Royal University in the open studies program for less than half a year. Hassan was born in Mumbai, India but lived in Mauritania, Africa until he decided to study in Canada. He discovered the process for prospective international students moving to Canada is a lengthy and expensive one.
First off, Hassan’s options for higher education in Africa were extremely limited, prompting him to look at foreign universities. Then, living in a country without a Canadian embassy required Hassan to take extra steps to organize his arrival into a new country that were time consuming and costly. From his home, he had to take a flight to the nearest embassy in the neighbouring country of Morocco. The trip is long — three hours of flying followed by another three hours by car, just so he could submit an application to study abroad.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of Article 1, a human rights magazine published by students in MRU’s school of Journalism & Digital Media. You can read more issues and articles at their website.
Along with trying to obtain a study permit, time-sensitive complications can occur along the journey, and missing a single deadline can set a potential student back several weeks or months.
“To be honest, I was supposed to come during the fall of last year [2022]. I couldn’t come because my letter of acceptance expired before I got my visa. One day before I got my visa, it expired,” said Hassan.
Coming to Canada also requires a study permit, which means Hassan had to go through this process twice to upload his biometrics. A process that’s done in-person required Hassan to travel back to the embassy in Morocco to have his fingerprints cataloged and then back home in Mauritania where he started. Then, several months later, do it again to get his study permit. This was not a minor setback — it cost Hassan almost $3,000, all of it paid out of pocket by his father who wanted to give his son a superior education and a path to permanent residency in Canada.
Influx of international students
Despite the hurdles, the number of prospective international students around the world hoping to come to Canada to advance their education has increased substantially. According to a report from the Government of Alberta in 2022, the number of study permit holders in Canada has jumped from 122,665 in the mid-2000s to 621,600 in 2021. This is following an overall trend where more international students than ever are studying in the United Kingdom and Canada. English-speaking countries with high credentials have led to a major influx of international students from countries like India, China, Pakistan, and elsewhere around the globe.
In January 2024, the federal government announced that they would be implementing changes to foreign student policy that aim to protect students from exploitation by marginally improving the ongoing housing crisis in Canada. Reactions to the announcement have been mixed. While students already enrolled like Hassan see the changes as being positive, the overall consensus is varied.
Ottawa argues the policy change for foreign students aims to help address the housing crisis. The changes include a 35 per cent reduction from 2023 for the number of undergraduate students granted study permits by capping the number of permits in 2024 at 360,000. These measures are temporary until 2026 and include work permits only available to international students in master’s and doctoral programs along with an increase in the cost of living that reflects the real expenses in Canada. The government said the cap will not affect study permit renewals, and those pursuing elementary and secondary education as well as master’s and doctoral degrees will not be affected either.
Providing proper support for the growing number of students from abroad is curated by independent international student associations across Canada. Kristen Chappell has been the international student support and immigration advising coordinator at Mount Royal for seven years. Professionals like her are international students’ first interaction with an international student association in Canadian universities. Associations like these exist across the country and are always sharing information and updates, ensuring that all international students have the most up-to-date information and support.
Chappell said, “We have various group chats on WhatsApp and professional organizations where information is shared and governments make political announcements. Then Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — which is the operating body within the government — has to implement the new policies and procedures that go along with those announcements. Then it trickles down to the institutions which it affects, like post-secondaries, who then have to share that information with students.”
“My father is basically paying for all of it. My tuition, my living expenses, everything for now until I find a job.”
International student muhammad hassan
Chappell is uniquely situated to know what the prevailing attitude of incoming and older students is, and finds that the changes made to the study permit requirements are only a bandage on a wound that continues to grow. She gathered baseline information reflecting the state of international students who attend Mount Royal.
“What I’m hearing is that Canada is reacting to the Canada brand that is being promoted across the world, encouraging people to come to Canada to study and for other immigration pathways,” said Chappell. “And with negative stories in the news of late, Canada as a political country has decided that they need to slow down bringing in international students.”
She fears that decisions like these are short-sighted because they tear families apart by preventing them from living in Canada together on a student permit. According to Chappell, most international students live with family members, so they do not affect the rental market.
“It gets confusing, but I think what’s important is consistency across the board in dealing with situations in the same way. But, it’s very challenging,” said Chappell.
Support for staying in Canada
According to a 2021 study from Statistics Canada, only three out of 10 international students who entered Canada in 2000 or later became a landed immigrant within 10 years. The students who had come to study for a master’s degree or higher managed to get permanent resident visas compared to those who came to the country for a bachelor’s degree. On top of this, where you come from affects your ability to become a permanent resident. If you are from Nigeria, India, Vietnam or China the rate of success is up to three times higher than those from other countries.
“Most of the students I talk with want to stay on and work in Canada after the completion of their studies. Their hope is to come here often on a pathway to permanent residency where they’re hoping to apply for the post-graduation work permit after the completion of their degree, stay on and work in Canada, which they can use to apply for permanent residence and get points in the system,” said Chappell.
That’s what Hassan ultimately aspires to. But until he graduates, he needs the support of his family.
“My father is basically paying for all of it. My tuition, my living expenses, everything for now until I find a job,” he said.
The growing influx of international students has added an important and inexpensive source of labor to the economy. But those students now face extreme scrutiny and are being blamed for the housing crisis.
Last November, an Office of the Federal Housing Advocate analysis reported that Canada was short 4.4 million homes. The Canadian Human Rights Commission said the shortage is a human rights crisis. For Farhan Khalid, a postgraduate international student at the University of Alberta, the issue is less about helping international students and more about providing a scapegoat for the housing market.
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“Students who do come here, I don’t think they’re causing that much of a housing crisis, because, as students, you don’t live lavishly, you don’t live [in] a one-bedroom apartment — you share. I’ve seen students sharing one bedroom among four people. If it’s a two-bedroom apartment, three, four people are staying over there.”
Still, Canada is wrestling with a housing crisis and the effects of that include international students who come here for an education.
Khalid, 24, is currently in the process of getting his master of science in materials engineering and is the co-vice president of the International Students’ Association there. His journey to Canada has also been a complicated one. He is from Pakistan and was an international student in Hong Kong first, where he did his undergraduate degree. He is skeptical about Canada having an abundance of opportunities.
“It depends, what your goal is. If you have the money, it’s going to be worth it,” he said.
Hassan adds, “You have to think about everything before you come here, especially the money. Because everything is pretty expensive here. And jobs, pretty much no jobs here.”
Repercussions of the cap
Data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows that six per cent of international students go to Alberta and the majority (52 per cent) go to Ontario, a total of 539,480 students. British Columbia gets 20 per cent, and Quebec has the third largest amount, receiving 11 per cent.
In a news release published in December 2023, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced that at the beginning of 2024, the cost of living and financial requirements for study permits will be increased. This is the first increase since the early 2000s when it was $10,000 for a single applicant who wanted to study in Canada. That amount is no longer viable due to inflation.
In 2024, a single applicant will have to prove that they have double the financial resources — over $20,000. The increase in required personal funds is supposed to be a protection for international students to ensure that they have a seamless transition when moving to the country.
Miller also noted there is a new cap on international student permits at 360,000. The IRCC will allocate a portion of this cap to each province and territory. Miller said the goal is to prevent abuses within the system. So far, the cap has received a mixed reception.
For far too long, unscrupulous actors have been taking advantage of international students, rendering them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Today, I announced new measures to the international students program to ensure system integrity and sustainable growth. 🧵👇🏻
— Marc Miller ᐅᑭᒫᐃᐧᐅᓃᐸᐄᐧᐤᐃᔨᐣ (@MarcMillerVM) January 22, 2024
“International students are vital to Canada and enrich our communities,” Miller said in the initial statement. “As such, we have an obligation to ensure that they have access to the resources they need for an enriching academic experience. In Canada, today, this isn’t always the case. Today, we are announcing additional measures to protect a system that has become so lucrative that it has opened a path for its abuse. Enough is enough.”
Hassan is hopeful that the cap would help his chances of becoming a permanent resident, but he is not without his reservations.
“Less immigrants will make the cost of living go down for the people who are already here — make things cheaper, I think. More than half of international students are Indians. So, it’s going to affect them. It’s kind of discriminatory, I think,” said Hassan.
For Khalid, the Canadian government’s decision to change the rules was short-sighted and unfair to those trying to enter the country to become educated and skilled workers.
“They shouldn’t be you’re competing with everybody else from a faraway part of the world, because no student I know comes here just for the education,” said Khalid. “They have a long-term plan, they have a plan to get their PR [permanent residency]. They want to live here, and they want to do it by the book.”
Khalid added, “I don’t think it’s a problem with students. I think it’s just the problem with the economy and the way they give out the grants to build more land or however the retail market or the housing market works over here.”