Some international students accuse the Canadian government of using them as a source of cheap labor and discarding them when they are no longer needed. Last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government allowed about 50,000 foreign students to stay for 18 months after graduating to look for work, at a time when the economy was reopening from Covid shutdowns and companies needed to hire. The government sold the permit extension as a way to “help more graduates meet pressing needs” in key fields and allow them to gain the work experience needed for permanent immigration. But a year and a half later, some of these hopeful permanent residents were left without status to work or remain in the country. “I’m basically sitting at home living off my savings and I don’t know how long I’m going to have to do that,” Daniel D’Souza, an accountant and former student at Seneca College near Toronto, said in an interview. “I regret choosing Canada as a country to immigrate, study and live. Canada should value international students more, not just use them as a form of cheap labor.” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser’s department said it is looking at ways to better support those who want to settle permanently in the country. The government “recognizes the enormous social, cultural and economic benefits” that international students bring, spokesman Geoffrey MacDonald said in an emailed statement. Like many graduates who took part in the 2021 programme, Mr D’Souza’s career has now stalled and his future is uncertain. These former students — many from India and the Philippines — had to quit their jobs when their work permits expired with no guarantee of permanent residency. Even if their applications are ultimately successful, they face months in limbo without work, income or health and welfare benefits. “When they needed us, they took advantage of us. But when we need their help or their support, no one shows up,” said Anshdeep Bindra, a former consultant at Ernst & Young in Toronto. “We pay fees and taxes and get nothing in return. You don’t recognize that we are the people who helped you solve the labor shortage.” New Goals Prime Minister Trudeau’s government, which plans to welcome a record number of new immigrants over the next three years to offset an aging workforce, is scheduled to announce updated targets Tuesday morning in Toronto. “Those who benefit from these public policies are given a similar or, in many cases, greater opportunity to gain specialized work experience as graduates had before the pandemic,” Mr MacDonald said. Foreign graduates hoped the permit extension would give them more time to gain work experience in Canada and boost their scores under the country’s immigration ranking system for skilled workers. But those graduates were caught in a backlog of applications that led to a 10-month system shutdown to allow the government to process them. Once the system reopened, students found themselves competing against groups of immigrants with much higher than normal scores, reducing their chances of gaining permanent residency. The immigration department said the temporary pause allowed the system to catch up and that “reducing or stopping calls for applications to manage growing stocks is exactly part of what the system was designed to do.” Of all permanent residents welcomed in 2021, nearly 40% were former international students, a record, according to the department. Since July this year, 26,250 invitations to apply for permanent residence have been issued, of which 10,212 were for international students or graduates, the government said. But that’s little consolation for those still waiting — or for their former employers. “Now the company will have to find another person to replace me when I’m already here,” said Leovilee Duatin, who worked for a real estate company in Caledonia, Ontario. “It’s like they just want us to work here to get our taxes and get rid of us.” International students not only contribute more than C$21 billion ($15.3 billion) annually to the economy, according to the government, but each year tens of thousands of graduates who have chosen to immigrate permanently become a source of new, educated workers. They can also play a key role in addressing the current labor crisis and future labor market needs, Royal Bank of Canada economists said in a report last month. The government needs to “prioritize people who paid for an education here, have experience here and are connected to employers here,” said Amira Ali, who was a leasing specialist for a Calgary property management company. “They are forcing us into a corner and leaving us without solutions.” (Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published by a syndicated feed.)

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