Jalandhar: Fearing deportation and an uncertain future, international students from India held protests against the Canadian government’s decision to end a policy that allowed students to extend their post-graduate work permits (PGWPs) by 18 months.
Changes to Canada’s immigration system in past months have left immigrants, particularly international students, in distress.
Holding banners with slogans like ‘stop mass deportation’, ‘good enough to work, good enough to stay’, ‘stop scapegoating immigrants’ and ‘stop hate and racism’, protesting students were in a race against time.
While the work permits of some protesting students have already expired, others are set to lose their permits by the end of this year.
The protests started in the last week of August at Queen Street in Brampton, Ontario. Similar protests were also held in Prince Edward Island and in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
What is a PGWP?
A PGWP is granted to an international student soon after they complete their studies.
Student leaders claimed that the move to end extensions to PGWPs was likely to affect around 1.3 lakh international students.
Amid a jobs and housing crisis as well as concerns around inflation looming large, the Canadian government had introduced a two-year cap on the intake of international students in January.
In December 2023, it announced it would not offer extensions to students whose PGWPs expired after December 31, 2023.
There were over 800,000 international students in 2022, up from 214,000 a decade ago when the study visa program picked up pace in Canada.
As per reports gathered by The Wire, students facing expiration of their PGWPs were either moving to the US, considering refugee status or applying for a labour market impact assessment (LMIA), a document that costs around CA$40,000 or Rs 25 lakh and through which employers hire foreign workers.
“Most international students [from India] are already in debt. Those who could afford them have already bought LMIAs, which means they have spent around Rs 50 lakh within four or five years of their stay in Canada. And those who had no money either applied for refugee status or moved to the US,” a student shared.
Notably, immigration has become a key factor ahead of Canada’s next federal elections due next year. If earlier an easy immigration system yielded widespread support to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party, the same system has now become a topic of debate in the country.
Protestors hold a sign saying ‘No More Komagata Maru’, a reference to a steamship carrying hundreds of South Asians that was turned away from Canada in 1914. Photo: Special arrangement.
Expiring work permits, students in distress
Speaking to The Wire, Bikram Singh, whose PGWP is set to expire in three months, said that he was on track to receive permanent residency (PR) in March 2024 but that delays derailed his plans.
The need for extensions to PGWPs arose after the Canadian government’s bi-weekly express entry draw system for PR and the provincial nominee program (PNP) in different provinces came to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“As no new draws were held during COVID, the Canadian government gave us an 18-month PGWP extension, but our PR got delayed,” Bikram added.
Bikram, who also heads the Naujawan Support Network, the association leading the PGWP protest in Brampton, said, “It should have been a smooth transition from PGWP to PR, but everything got messed up. We came to Canada legally, completed our education and Canadian work experience, but we have been left to fend for ourselves.”
Protests against the decision to stop extensions to PGWPs started four months ago, but they came to the limelight after students staged a permanent protest in Brampton in the last week of August this year.
Among other students at the Brampton protest was Sahib Singh from Sault College in Ontario, whose PGWP expired in August. “The trouble is that when our work experience requirement was fulfilled, the government increased the score of the express entry system, leaving us in limbo,” he said.
He was referring to a scoring system that factors in immigrants’ skills, education and other factors and based on which the Canadian government issues invitations for PR.
Sahib said that losing his work permit changed his legal status to that of a visitor visa-holder.
“My parents spent CA$40,000 or Rs 25 lakh for a hospitality and tourism management course, but look at our struggle. We have been strongly taking up our case with local leaders since March, but there is no reprieve in sight. The fact is that the Canadian government is busy with the upcoming federal election next year and we have been left to fend for ourselves,” he added.
He also spoke about the changing narrative that is pitting Canadians against immigrants – particularly Indians – and gaining ground on social media.
“There is a growing sentiment among people that immigrants have taken Canadians’ jobs … It is disheartening to see racial hatred being spread against international students through social media. The Canadian government should address this issue and save our future,” he added.
Students also told The Wire that besides some local leaders, around 54 trade unions under the Ontario Federation of Workers and Migrants, an advocacy group for Filipino migrant workers, have also extended support to their protest.
Jaspreet Singh, a former international student and now a community advocate heading the International Sikh Students Association NGO in Toronto, said that he spoke to Canadian immigration minister Marc Miller, who told him there would no longer be any extensions to PGWPs.
“They do not seem to be interested in our pleas, but we are trying our best. I will also meet the Ministry of Trade and investment in this regard. We are hopeful that they might give PGWP extensions to select trades, perhaps the ones that are in demand,” he said.
Jaspreet added: “If provincial governments decide to give extensions, it might bail students out from getting deported.”
However, he said that even if students get work permit extensions, it would be difficult for them to get PR.
“In 2023-2024, the Canadian government announced that it will give PR to five lakh immigrants, but the current rate of transition from study to a work permit is around 15% only. At this pace, only 30,000 to 50,000 immigrants will get PR. International students have nowhere to go, while right-wing politicians were also not supporting the students in their protest, leaving them in distress,” he said.
He requested people to think twice before sending their children to Canada on study visas. “Given the current circumstances, people need to realise that the West is not an option for a secure future. The slow economy of the West has hit people’s earnings hard.”
Amardeep Singh, who came on a spouse visa in 2021, said that his wife’s PGWP expired on June 14, 2024, after which they applied for the PNP in Ontario.
“As the PNP process also got delayed, my wife’s three-year work permit expired. Though I have a job, we were stressed over a work permit extension. Further, the high cost of living coupled with low earnings has made things difficult in Canada,” he said.
He thanked Brampton North MP Ruby Sahota, local leaders, federations and the Punjabi community for supporting the student’s protest.
“The Trudeau government should sort out this crisis, as some students have been sitting without a job for six months in a row,” he added.
Refugee cases up, students moving to the US
A report in the Indian Express revealed that a sharp increase was seen in the number of undocumented Indians moving to the US in the past few months. This includes many students who left Canada after having exhausted all means of staying there legally.
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, around 5,152 undocumented Indians entered the US from Canada on foot in June 2024 alone.
“Those students whose work permits expired and were not in a condition to buy LMIAs were the ones who moved to the US in large numbers,” said Bikram Singh, the student leader.
On the other hand, Canada also witnessed a sharp increase in the number of asylum claims. According to Canada’s Refugee Protection Division (RPD), as many as 19,810 refugee protection claims were made in July 2024, of which 6,264 were accepted.
An education consultant told The Wire that students were paying around CA$5,000 to agents to cross over to the US without knowing that both countries shared the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement, which leaves them with little scope of having a refugee claim accepted.
“The students should avoid falling in this trap,” he said.
An encampment of protestors. Photo: Special arrangement.
Racial hatred against Indians on social media
Around two months ago, a photo of a caricature apparently on Ontario’s Wasaga Beach depicting a turbaned man defecating was circulated on social media, inviting sharp reactions from all communities.
However, Wasaga Beach mayor Brian Smith said there had been no evidence of any “unsanitary behaviour” occurring at the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, Global News reported.
Amardeep Singh said that the Wasaga beach photo was fake.
“There was no such caricature on Wasaga beach, but it led to a big controversy. We are taking up the case of racial hatred in our protests. Unless political parties do not support us, we cannot expect any impact. More than the youth, it is the elderly Punjabis who were under attack on social media. Thankfully there are some Canadians and Scottish people who are supporting us,” he said.
The Sun reported that the idea that Indian men were defecating on Canadian beaches was being used to support adverse sentiment against people of South Asian descent in far-right Canadian social media.
Community advocate Jaspreet Singh also said that racial hatred against Indians because of fewer jobs, inflation and the housing crisis in Canada was getting worse day by day.
“The racial hatred was more on social media than … on the ground. Everybody would like to blame someone for the current situation, and international students were at the receiving end,” he said.
Another photo showing an elderly man crouching at a parking spot with his shorts pulled down led to a war of words between Canadians and Punjabi immigrants. The owner of the property has claimed the photo is fake.
“The racial hatred has increased to such an extent that even an informative post on social media leads to a war of words blaming us for the job crisis and inflation,” one of the students added.
‘Mass failure’ of students by St. Clair College and Algoma University
Apart from the PGWP protest, students of two colleges – St Clair College of Applied Arts and Technology and Algoma University, both in Ontario, held separate protests against the alleged mass failure of students.
While protests at Algoma University started in January this year, those at St Clair College started recently.
Students alleged that the college is set to shut down in the next few months following the Canadian government’s announcing its cap on the intake of international students.
The Canada government became strict after major loopholes were found in the study visa program run by private colleges.
Speaking to The Wire, Milony Poriya, a computer science graduate from Mumbai who pursued a business management course from Algoma University, said that despite repeated protests, varsity officials did not offer an explanation as to why they failed all students in finance and accounting.
“We got to know that in a bid to make more money, the university failed all students in one subject. The fees for a [retest] per student was CA$1,500, which would help them sail through till the time the college shuts down. We have been demanding fair assessment, but they did not respond,” she said.
Milony said that she did not come to Canada to protest on the roads, but to build her future. “People think that international students are the problem, but they forget that we came to Canada legally,” she emphasised.
Arshpreet Kaur from St Clair college also said that over a 100 students were failed by college authorities in a medical terminology exam.
“The college authorities know that no new students would be joining, hence they were resorting to such practices. We have been … failed in the medical terminology exam. An entire class cannot fail in one subject. Since our college became a private body from a public institution, they were forcing us to appear for the exam,” she alleged.
The students also said they had been demanding public checking of their answer sheets but that nobody from the college management responded.
“We cannot even share our problems with our parents back home. The fear of deportation has made our lives miserable,” one student said.
