NEWS

Canada is accused of using international students for ‘cheap labour’

International students are used as ‘cheap labour’ in Canada to fill their labour shortage, graduates waiting for months to be in graduate employment feeling dumped and discarded.

International students in Canada are accusing the Canadian government for using them as a cheap source of labour and discarding them after they are not needed any longer.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced a new temporary measure to reduce severe labour shortage. The government has decided to lift limit on off-campus work hours temporarily and International students to help address Canada’s labour shortage. 

The government introduced the permit extension move to over 5,00,000 international students who are already in Canada to potentially work more hours, and stay for 18 months after graduation to seek employment. However, many of these have been left without status to work or remain in the country, a Bloomberg report said. "I'm basically sitting at home and living off of my savings... Canada should appreciate foreign students more, not just use them as a form of cheap labour," Daniel D'Souza, an accountant and former student at Seneca College near Toronto, told Bloomberg.

In 2021, Canada had over 6.20 lakh graduates - many graduates who were part of the 2021 program, had to leave their jobs when their work permits expired with no guarantee they'll gain permanent residency. Even though some of the applications are eventually successful, students face months in waiting queue with no job, income, or health and social benefits, Bloomberg reported.

"When they needed us, they exploited us. But when we need their help or support, nobody shows up," Anshdeep Bindra, a former consultant at Ernst & Young in Toronto, told Bloomberg.

Graduates who hoped that the extension of their permits would give then chance to gain Canadian work experience, were stalled in a backlog of applications that led to a 10-month shutdown of the system to allow the Canadian Immigration to process those. Once the system was up and running, the graduates found themselves competing with pools of immigrants with much higher-than-normal scores, reducing their chances of gaining permanent residency, the report said.

 

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