Most international students who come to Canada want to remain and eventually become permanent residents – but less than a third actually achieve this goal, a new study says.

Jenny Francis, a geography faculty member at Langara College in Vancouver, has spent the last three years surveying students and studying the issue in British Columbia.

“We’re really exploiting international students by bringing them in and not worrying what happens to them,” she told The PIE News in an interview. “For the colleges in British Columbia, it’s more money, more money, more money.”

In her report, Francis pointed to data from Statistics Canada that showed only 30% of international students with a bachelor’s degree become permanent residents within 10 years of first obtaining a study permit. For her study, more than 1,000 international students and recent graduates temporarily in Canada under the post-graduate work permit program were surveyed.

Overseas agents convince students that it is easy to obtain permanent resident status, when in fact it can take many years and the individual may eventually be turned down. CBIE surveys have previously found that 60% of international students plan to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

“There is a chance to immigrate to Canada, but it’s not a slam-dunk by any means,” Francis said.

Many international students lack the English skills and academic preparedness to qualify for managerial employment that leads them to be able to apply for permanent resident status, she argues. “A 21-year-old student from India with a two-year diploma in photography is not going to get a managerial position that will lead to permanent residency.”

Earlier this year, Canadian think tank, Conference Board of Canada, called on the government to introduce an international student immigration strategy.

Last year, Canada managing director at World Education Services,  Shamira Madhany, told The PIE that “it is critical that [students] have the necessary supports to be successful as they transition from post-secondary to the labour force and succeed long term”.

Over the last two decades colleges in British Columbia and Ontario have taken advantage of high demand from international students to respond to stagnating provincial government funding by catering to more students from overseas.

“The colleges have just jumped on recruiting as many students as they can,” Francis suggested.

Despite the fact that they have paid a lot of money for international tuition, these students are offered little help in finding employment and moving on to the next stage of their dream of staying in Canada, she continued.

Employability often features in discussions at conferences such as CBIE, however, and it may be unfair to tarnish all education providers with the same brush.

Outgoing president of Universities Canada Paul Davidson has previously noted that immigration to Canada is a “non-partisan issue”. Canada was one of the first countries to provide a “premium or a bonus” to students that wished to stay beyond their graduation, he added.

For Francis, it is ironic that a wealthy country like Canada is relying on students with little money to support its colleges. “The question is: Are we going to let poor farming families in Punjab (India) finance our education system by mortgaging their farms,” Francis asked.

In addition, she believes that Canada needs to be more upfront with prospective international students about the cost of living to ensure they are fully supported.

She is urging the federal government to double the minimum cash that students on the Student Direct Stream must have to get a study permit from $10,000 to $20,000.

Francis is concerned that overseas agents are misleading students about living expenses and the chances of gaining permanent residency after graduation. “I wish that the province would tell the colleges that they can’t use agents or at least restrict the use of agents.”

The role of agents is expected to be reviewed in Canada’s upcoming international education strategy.

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