The number of international students with study permits currently in Canada crossed the one million mark in 2023.
According to the news outlet Globe and Mail, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said there were 1,028,850 study permit holders in the country at the end of December.
These numbers, the outlet reported, were higher than that earlier estimated for the year by IRCC, which was 949,000, with the million figure being breached in 2023.
Of the million-plus study permit holders, 526,015 were in Ontario, 202,565 were in British Columbia, and 117,925 in Quebec.
Students from India comprise the larger national cohort among those with these visas. Till November 2023, they accounted for 215,190 out of the 579,075 permits issued or 37%, while in 2022, they made for 225,835 out of 548785, or 41%. The numbers have escalated sharply over the past five years when the number of Indians getting study permits was at less than half the current figure, at 107,070 in 2018.
Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller, in interviews late last year, said the system “has gotten out of control” while describing the volume of newcomers as “disconcerting”.
On Tuesday, he told the agency Reuters that study permits being issued to students from India had dropped due to ongoing bilateral tensions after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons on September 18 that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey on June 18.
He attributed the reduction to India asking Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats in October, which New Delhi said was to bring “parity” with India’s presence in Canada and Ottawa described as “mass expulsion.” Diplomats who left India included several IRCC officers.
However, applications from India had already started falling in the second half of 2023 as the housing affordability crisis in Canada made it a less attractive destination for students. Between July and November 2023 that figure fell to 120,096 from 190,419 for the same period the previous year.
Canada started taking measures with regard to international students since late last year. On December 7, IRCC announced that for new study permit applications received on or after January 1 this 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.
In October 2023, it had announced that starting December 2023, designated learning institutions or DLIs will be obligated to verify the acceptance letters of each applicant through the IRCC.
At that time, Miller said, “And now it’s time for us to have a conversation about volumes and the impact that is having in certain areas.”