“They’re real people, they’re not just a label. International students are experiencing xenophobia and racism as a consequence of politically motivated rhetoric, and that’s what happens when we demonise a group,” Yvonne Su, professor at York University Ontario told CBC Radio Canada.
Last month, The Globe and Mail reported that refugee claims by international students had increased by 646% from 2018-2023, raising concerns about students exploiting Canada’s immigration system.
The article comes after immigration minister Marc Miller called the rise in asylum claims “alarming” and “totally unacceptable”, as the issue of international student numbers receives further scrutiny in Canada’s immigration debate.
However, educators and academics have said that the focus on refugee claims rather than approvals, obscures the complexities of the issue and contributes to fuelling xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment, wrote Su and fellow professors in an article for The Conversation.
Canadian context
According to the article’s authors, the proportion of approved refugee claims increased from 63% in 2018 to 79% in 2023, and during this period, refugee fraud has been relatively rare.
Notably, when examined as a percentage of all international students, those seeking asylum made up 1% in 2023.
Refugee claims by international students amounted to 3% of new refugee claims in 2018, rising to 8% in 2023, the impact of which should not be “exaggerated” or “taken out of context” academics noted.
However, “the problem is not the proportion”, immigration consultant Earl Blaney, told The PIE.
“The trend is explosive, and the situation to facilitate the trend is explosive.
“I know the association between false refugee claims and international students is a sensitive topic, but my point to those people worried about the negative association is to stop putting students on the frontline of public discontent.
“Stop putting students on the frontline of public discontent”
“Public sentiment in Canada is quickly turning anti-immigration, that’s never happened in my lifetime and it’s on the verge of happening now because all these groups that are saying ‘don’t blame this on the students’ are putting really vulnerable people in a really vulnerable situation,” he added.
According to Blaney, some immigration consultants are encouraging students to claim asylum as an alternative route to permanent residence which has become harder to obtain.
And yet, sweeping media narratives are harming genuine cases, educators warn.
“One of my international students recently evacuated her mother from Haiti, because the situation there got so dire so quickly, so they had to find a way to get her out on humanitarian grounds.
“So here she is, trying to finish her degree, and the news all around her is saying this is asylum fraud. This is not asylum fraud, she has a well-founded fear of being harmed if her mother doesn’t get out or if she was forced to be returned to Haiti,” said Su on CBC Radio Canada.
There are currently a record number of 2.7 million non-permanent residents residing in Canada, 1.5 million of whom are international students and graduates.
As Canada approaches an election year in 2025, immigration volumes in the face of a national housing affordability crisis have become the topic of much public discussion.
In 2023, the IRCC announced a freeze of new permanent residents at 500,000 per year for 2025 and 2026, followed by a study visa cap on international students announced in January 2024.
Public perception
New research found that Canada, Australia and the UK are falling out of favour among prospective international students due to new policy measures and as political rhetoric continues to build.
“We pride ourselves on being a multicultural melting pot … well I think that reputation is starting to decay as people bring stories back home of being threatened and being intimidated because of the colour of the skin and because people think they’re international students,” said Su.
Higher education stakeholders said that they feared the awareness of the benefits of international students were being “lost”, after a survey of 1,500 adults found that 58% felt there were too many international students in Canada.
An additional 61% agreed that the reason was due to “mismanaged finances by post-secondary institutions in the country”, the publication stated.
“I read a lot about students being blamed but I don’t hear that. What I hear is that colleges are acting irresponsibly, that’s the consensus,” said Blaney.
“What I hear is that colleges are acting irresponsibly, that’s the consensus”
The UK
In the UK, international student recruitment is becoming increasingly embroiled in the immigration debate ahead of a general election that has to happen before January 2025.
Last year, international taught-masters students were banned from bringing dependents to the UK, and universities are currently awaiting the findings of the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the graduate route visa.
Last month, Daily Mail reported on leaked figures showing 6,136 asylum cases were lodged by international students in 2023, a four-fold increase on the previous year.
The number of study visas granted last year fell by 5% as compared with 2022, though it was 70% higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to Home Office data reported by the publication.
“Under current regulations, any student who joins us would have been vetted by UKVI before coming to university, and will have met the Government’s stringent requirements that allow students to study in the UK.
“This particular issue is a result of the Government’s own asylum policy, which allows visa switching in a way that is outside the direct control of the Universities concerned and is not a failing of the higher education sector”, a spokesperson from the University of Portsmouth told The PIE.
The war in Ukraine, violence in Haiti and ongoing humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Venezuela, Sudan and elsewhere have caused the displacement of more than 130 million people in 2024, according to UNHCR estimates.
Experts are urging policy-makers to consider that many international students claim asylum while in Canada and the UK because their situation in their home countries changed.
“There is a serious risk with making sweeping claims in the media about any migrants, and such claims play into an ongoing hostile rhetoric surrounding migration as a whole,” said Nazek Ramadan, Director of Migrant Voice.
“This rhetoric appears to be increasing, in different ways, as we get closer towards a general election, including against students and those seeking asylum.
“People’s circumstances change, circumstances in home countries change, meaning that they may need to seek asylum, no matter how they may have initially arrived.”
