The benefits of welcoming international students across Canada is being lost amid negative headlines and political pressure, stakeholders across the country fear.
CTV News reported that a survey of 1,500 random adults in Canada found that 58% said they felt there are too many international students studying in Canada – up 9% from a similar survey conducted in October 2023.
An additional 61% agreed that the reason was due to “mismanaged finances by post secondary institutions in the country”, the publication stated.
Sonja Knutson, director of the Internationalization Office at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said that the survey “did not at all strike a resonant chord” from her viewpoint in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“International students and their families bring great value to Canadian communities,” she said.
Hers is a community is well aware of the positive benefits international students bring to the region, she added.
Director, International at College of the Rockies, Larissa Strong, noted that recent negative media coverage about international students has meant the story of the benefits they bring to our classrooms, campuses and communities “has been lost”.
“The diversity of ways of thinking and doing they bring adds a richness to the Canadian classroom and supports the development of intercultural competencies of Canadian students,” she told The PIE.
“Educational institutions need to have the right supports in place to welcome international students and help them reach their goals so that the benefits they bring can be realised.”
Others have suggested that the international education sector’s estimated $22 billion annual impact is often overlooked.
CBIE has highlighted that the sector is worth more than the auto parts, lumber and aerospace sectors combined, and it creates over 170,000 jobs.
International student enrolment also “supports broader Canadian public policy priorities”, such as filling skill shortages in key labour markets and meeting the country’s demographic challenges.
A further 66% of respondents said that believed that Canada cannot cope with the recent increases in numbers, including the numbers of those wanting to stay in the country following graduation.
CBIE has been one of a number of stakeholders that has said a one-size-fits-all approach from federal government risks penalising institutions and jurisdictions that are doing a good job delivering a positive experience to international students.
It has acknowledged that there is over-saturation of international students in certain regions and that dubious programs need to be addressed.
However, smaller provinces and territories and rural communities are “rightly clamouring for more international student enrolment, not less, and are taking steps to ensure the infrastructure to accommodate their requirements is in place”, it said earlier this year after the cap was announced.
Some 52% of the small scale online survey were in support of the new cap on international students, with a similar number (51%) suggesting programs like healthcare, agriculture and science should be exempt from the rule.
The two-year cap excludes K-12, masters and PhD students, as well as in-Canada visiting or exchange students studying at a designated learning institution and in-Canada study permit holders (including study permit holders applying for extensions).
“The conflation of housing shortages and international students came from government releases beginning in mid-2023”
“The conflation of housing shortages and international students came from government releases beginning in mid-2023, and was picked up by media,” Knutson continued.
“Certainly if Canadians are looking to blame a group, it is easy to blame students and their educational institutions for not ensuring all international student needs are met within the geographic bubble of the campus.
“This approach keeps blame from falling onto other categories of newcomers, but those of us that work directly with newcomers would prefer to avoid open blame for any category, precisely because, as we see in the survey results, it has an impact on public perceptions/misperceptions.”
For the public, the ability to differentiate between any category of newcomer is tenuous at best, Knutson concluded.
“It is just not possible to ‘tell’ who is an international student in one’s community and any survey that specifically asks about whether there are too many international students is not going to achieve meaningful data,” she said.
