Unemployment is increasing in Canada, foreign students under heavy pressure

Canada’s job market is shrinking. Added to this is increasing immigration, resulting in the country’s population growing at its fastest rate in 67 years. All in all, there is a huge pressure on international students studying in the country.

The more than 1 million foreign students in the country can mainly work in low-paying part-time jobs. Pictures have been seen on social media where there is a huge queue of jobseekers outside businesses even for hiring a worker for a position like a cashier.

Dhivani Malik, a fourth-year international relations student at the University of British Columbia, said, ‘(We are) very concerned because the cost of living in Vancouver is going up and the job opportunities are going down.’

He said, ‘International students already spend a lot of money on fees. With the increase in house rent and cost of living, the financial pressure has increased a lot.

Canada’s unemployment rate has risen in recent months to 6.1% in March, nearly double that for young people. The Federal Government Statistics Agency reported this information. The trend has been largely attributed to a surge in population growth, all of which is driven by immigration and the influx of temporary residents such as seasonal workers and foreign students.

An important part of this rapid population growth is considered to be international students, who are offered employment opportunities in Canada and citizenship upon graduation. Roughly speaking, the US population is 8 times that of Canada, but the two countries have about the same number of foreign students. The Washington Post reported this week.

Foreign students pay much more in course fees than Canadian citizens, making them an important source of income for the country’s universities.

But as political pressure mounted, the government introduced new quotas on foreign student admissions in January and last month announced a plan to control the number of temporary residents.

For foreign students who want to earn while studying, the problems are compounded by existing policies. According to these policies, restrictions have been imposed on what kind of job they can do and how many hours they can work.

“The bottom line is, they can’t work full-time,” said Al Parsai, a Toronto-based immigration expert. They do not have a Canadian degree or work experience. As a result, they are forced to work minimum hourly wage jobs.’

The decision to reduce the number of student visas could be a headache for universities. For example, UBC, one of Canada’s most prestigious universities, had 27 percent of its 2022 admissions as foreign students.