High unemployment rate in Canada limits opportunities for international students
More than 1 million international students in the country are primarily restricted to low-wage, part-time jobs.
Canada: Unemployment in Canada has been inching up in recent months, hitting 6.1% in March. The trend is partly attributed to rapid population growth fueled almost entirely by immigration and the arrival of temporary residents such as seasonal workers and international students. Youth unemployment hovers near 12%.
Canada's tightened job market hurts international students
The surge of immigration, which produced the fastest population growth in 67 years, has worsened the problem. More than 1 million international students in the country are primarily restricted to low-wage, part-time jobs. Social media is abuzz with photos of long lines forming outside businesses with even a single job opening for a position such as a cashier.
International students offered pathways to employment in Canada and eventual citizenship after graduation have been an essential part of the rapid growth. The Washington Post reported that Canada has roughly the same international students as the United States, which has eight times the population.
However, for international students seeking to support themselves in Canada while pursuing their degrees, the problem is exacerbated by regulations restricting the kinds of jobs they can accept and the number of hours they can work. International students pay much higher fees than Canadian citizens, and they are also an essential source of revenue for the nation's universities.
New caps on foreign students
Facing mounting political pressure, the government announced new caps on the number of international students admitted in January, and last month, it announced a plan to scale back the total number of temporary residents. The decision to cut back student visas is expected to create financial headaches for universities such as UBC, one of the most prestigious in Canada, where tuition-paying international students accounted for 27% of the school's enrollment in 2022.
Affordability crisis
International students already pay so much in fees, and the increasing rent and living costs have only added to the financial pressure. Many students are taking multiple part-time jobs to address this burden. The problem is that they cannot work full-time and do not have a Canadian degree or work experience yet. Consequently, they end up looking for hourly minimum-wage jobs.
Declining job opportunities
Dhvani Malik, a fourth-year international relations student at the University of British Columbia, says that Vancouver's affordability crisis and declining job opportunities are becoming very stressful. She is shut out of many job opportunities because she cannot provide a referral from a prior employer or relative in Canada. Malik said that in her circle, students have to bargain to get certain groceries at some point and then leave the rest for when they can afford it. She has celiac disease, and the groceries are already so expensive that with the current crisis, it is becoming unaffordable to get through her grocery list. In a nutshell, the current situation is making it difficult to stay in Canada.
Rapid population growth fueled by immigration
Statistics Canada reported that the country's population of about 39 million grew last year at its fastest rate since 1957, with immigration accounting for almost all the growth. However, while helping address a post-pandemic labour shortage, the rapid increase has pressured housing costs and government-financed health care.
In public remarks this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau effectively acknowledged that his government's strategy of addressing a severe labour shortage by opening the door to record numbers of immigrants and temporary residents had overshot the mark.
Trudeau was quoted as saying in Nova Scotia that the government wants to get the numbers of temporary immigrants down and that it's a responsible approach to immigration that continues on their permanent residents, as they have, but also holds the line a little more on the temporary immigration that has caused so much pressure in their communities.
Ontario and Quebec crackdown
Ontario has been the harshest province to crack down on international students. It has aimed to give 96% of its foreign study permits only to public universities and colleges, shutting out private colleges that have been criticised as "diploma mills." Quebec might go even further, as the Parti Quebecois has asked the provincial government to freeze all temporary immigration to Canada.