Immigration Department Introduces New Regulations to Address ‘Unethical Behavior’ in Foreign Student Programs

“Amendments would allow the department to effectively respond to integrity challenges and address common occurrences of unethical behaviour that undermines the integrity of the program,” the department wrote in a June 29 “Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement,” which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

In February, Immigration Minister Marc Miller accused some colleges of suspicious practices in accepting large numbers of foreign students, including a portion who promptly claimed refugee protection in Canada. “Ontario over the last three years in their education system has had over 10,000 asylum claims,” he told reporters on Feb. 27. “That isn’t the sign of a healthy system.”

The new regulations would require colleges and universities to notify the immigration department of all foreign students enrolled, whether they are pursuing a course at the institution or transferring to another school. Federal inspectors would be given new powers to ensure the schools made “all reasonable efforts to comply” with the new regulations and verify if school managers were “acting in good faith” in instances of non-compliance.

In addition, an enhanced system for letters of acceptance for foreign students would allow Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to verify each letter of acceptance submitted with study permit applications before they are processed. This would allow the agency to “effectively respond” to problematic behaviours that have been found to undermine the integrity of the program, said the document.

“The proposed regulations would require that the Minister publish and maintain a public suspension list,” said the report, adding that all new foreign study permits for a blacklisted campus would be automatically cancelled.

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Canadian universities accepted a record 1,040,000 international students in 2023, which was a 29 percent increase over 2022. The number of foreign students accepted was nearly as many as in the United States, despite the U.S. having around nine times the population of Canada.

Canada took in 427,000 international students from India in 2023, followed by 101,000 from China, 49,000 from the Philippines, and 46,000 from Nigeria.

“The spike in demand can be attributed to a number of factors including greater interest to come study and then potentially work in Canada as well as increased promotion and marketing activities to identify Canada as a choice destination for pursuing postsecondary studies,” said the document. “Under existing regulations, international students may change their designated learning institution anytime.”

Mr. Miller said in February that while he did not want to “reproach people for wanting to exercise their rights in claiming asylum,” he said that the decision could not be made as the result of a “poor education system.”

Since 2018, over 36,000 international students studying in Canada have claimed refugee protection, which Mr. Miller called an “alarming” figure.