Canadian immigration Minister Marc Miller has strongly refuted the suggestion that the IRCC’s international student caps were an “overcorrection”, firmly standing by federal policies of the past ten months.
Addressing delegates at the CBIE 2024 conference in Ottawa, Miller said that he “profoundly disagreed” with the prevailing sector view that the IRCC’s international student caps and subsequent PGWP and permanent residency restrictions were an “overcorrection”.
“I kick myself for trusting provinces and institutions for not regulating themselves in the first place,” said Miller.
When pressed by CBIE CEO and president Larissa Bezo, Miller said that there would be no more “major” policy changes, but didn’t rule out future corrections.
“The broad-brush strokes are there, if there’s anything more to be done by the federal government it will be small surgical corrections,” Miller shared with the audience.
Laying bare the fraught relationship between the federal and provincial governments, Miller pointed to the “failure of provincial governments to regulate their international students”, emphasising that he is not the federal minister of education but the minister of immigration.
According to Miller, the IRCC’s restrictive immigration policies have been “wildly popular” among Canadians, though Bezo expressed the sector’s “deep concern” about the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Canada and the lack of action from government to rebuild the sector’s global brand.
The international education sector – which has widely acknowledged the need to address integrity issues – was not spared from blame, with Miller maintaining: “We obviously need to see some DLIs and puppy mills close, so I’ll stop talking about it when I see something happening.”
In response, panellists called for an end to the “blame game” and for greater cooperation and communication of Canada’s global brand.
Federal government is blaming the provinces and provinces are blaming the federal government
Larry Rosia, Saskatchewan Polytechnic
“Federal government is blaming the provinces and provinces are blaming the federal government”, said Saskatchewan Polytechnic president Larry Rosia, highlighting the role of institutions to act as “matchmakers” between federal and provincial governments.
“We really need to get provinces talking to federal government agencies and ministries,” echoed Vinitha Gengatharan, assistant vice president, global engagement & partnerships at York University.
“When are the adults coming back into the room?” she asked.
According to a recent IDP survey of senior stakeholders, 81% of respondents rated the federal government’s engagement with education stakeholders as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’, with some speakers at the conference signalling concerns regarding the IRCC’s lack of understanding about the impact of the policy changes on institutions, students, provincial labour markets and local communities.
However, the IRCC’s addition of nursing to the list of PGWP eligible courses last week signalled some flexibility and a “chance to get our foot in the door”, said Rosia.
Rosia acknowledged the willingness of Miller to sit down with stakeholders – who he said he’d met with three times in the past week – compared to a lack of engagement from some provincial governments.
Despite some strained relations, Miller said that the IRCC did have a good working relationship with some provinces, signposting policy flexibility in the case of nursing, early childhood education and Francophone institutions, as well as “provinces that put forward a legitimate argument they have been unfairly treated”.
Going forward, stakeholders urged the government to more proactively engage with rebuilding the Canadian brand internationally as well as conveying the value of Canada’s international higher education on the domestic agenda.
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