Canada’s Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, said at a conference that international language students won’t get special treatment in study visa limits. Despite arguments that these students live with Canadian families and don’t work, Miller rejected the idea of an exemption. He hinted that controlling secondary school spaces might happen in the future to manage the high number of students.
Miller compared capping student numbers to “doing surgery with a hammer.” In 2023, there were over one million international students with valid Canadian study permits, a 29% increase from the previous year.
While many in the Canadian education sector agree on the need to control the growing number of international students, the language sector says they’re not part of the problem. Gonzalo Peralta, executive director of Languages Canada, mentioned that language education numbers have stayed at 80% of 2019 levels since 2019.
The cap introduced on January 22 caused controversy. Politicians said it was due to a housing crisis, exempting secondary school students. Language schools argued for the same treatment, emphasizing the financial help they give to Canadian families.
But Miller insisted housing wasn’t the main concern, and he’s not considering more exemptions. He suggested talking to provinces about the student volumes they’ve encouraged. Despite this, Cath D’Amico, former president of Languages Canada, noted that provincial governments don’t have control over language education.
Canada Visa Caps, Language Students Exemption, Visa Exemption Denied, Canadian Immigration News, Language Student Visas