Canada considering immigration reforms

The Canadian Government is looking at reforming its temporary residency programmes which include international students and workers on visas in the country.

This was indicated by Canada’s Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser in an interview with the outlet Global News. “We do need to continue to look at reforms to our temporary residency programs,” he said.

That concern has been precipitated by a continuing housing affordability crisis in the country.

Fraser was, in fact, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship before he was moved to his current position this summer.

The incumbent Marc Miller has announced multiple measures related to the intake of international students, including doubling the amount they need to have available in a Canadian bank account at the time of applying for a study permit. In the December 7 announcement, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada or IRCC said that for study permit applications received on or after January 1 next year, a single applicant will “need to show they have CA$ 20,635 (approximately ₹12.7 lakh), as against CA$ 10,000 (about ₹6.14 lakh) earlier. “We are revising the cost-of-living threshold so that international students understand the true cost of living here. This measure is key to their success in Canada,” Miller said at the time.

He also warned that study permits caps could be implemented for higher education institutions that did not arrange adequate housing for incoming international students. “We expect learning institutions to only accept the number of students that they can provide adequate supports for, including housing options,” the IRCC release noted.

Miller had estimated there were approximately 900,000 international students in Canada. According to IRCC data, till October this year, Canada issued 553,675 study permits, with Indian nationals accounting for over a third, at 208,630. That overall total has already exceed the record set last for issuing such visas, which was at 548,875.

Meanwhile, the intake of temporary foreign workers including through Canada’s international mobility programme has also been high. Again, till October 2023, there were 828,335 such visas issued, with Indians making for 247,495, or about 30%.

The large intake of newcomers to the country has put tremendous pressure on housing stock and caused sharp increases, in particular, in rents. In its December 2023 report, rentals.ca said the average rent for an apartment was CA$ 2,125 (approximately ₹1.30 lakh), an increase of 11.2% in a year.