Canadian Immigration Minister Mark Miller has expressed concern about the “fairness” of student immigration to the North American country amid reported cases of fake college admissions by agencies with the potential to ruin students’ careers and futures.
Mark Miller said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that Canada is concerned about the overall integrity of the system that educates hundreds of thousands of international students and not just the additional pressure they put on housing.
Notably, Canada is on track to welcome 900,000 international students this year, Minister Miller said. This is the largest number of immigration students Canada has ever seen, and certainly triple the number who entered the country a decade ago.
During the interview, Miller noted that private and public universities generate revenues of 20 to 30 billion Canadian dollars ($14.7 to $22.1 billion) annually for those who come to study from abroad.
“Some people make a lot of money in a legitimate way, some people game the system, and my main concern is the safety of the system,” he said, according to a Reuters report.
When asked if the Canadian government was considering capping the number of students admitted, Millar said: “Just putting a hard cap, which has generated a lot of public interest over the past few days, is not the only solution to this.” Miller said.
Miller was responding to the housing minister that the government was considering whether to cap the number of students allowed in each year as a way to ease the housing crisis, but Miller was skeptical.
Meanwhile, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reportedly planned to implement a new Trusted Foundation Framework for its student visa program by 2024.
This framework is a key component of a larger strategy aimed at modernizing the International Student Program (ISP) operated by IRCC.