IRCC was requested to provide comments on the steps needed to draw in, support, and safeguard international students already in Canada of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM).
Canada’s internal immigration and citizenship committee, CIMM, studies these issues. Overseeing IRCC and monitoring federal multiculturalism regulations is one of their responsibilities. A number of reasons can put students in risky and vulnerable situations. IRCC can address some of those reasons in the CIMM report.
International students were the focus of three main objectives in the report:
- Bringing Foreign students to Canada to study.
- Making the International Student Program more equitable.
- The process of obtaining a study permit and obtaining immigration papers should be made more efficient. As well as customer friendly for Foreign students.
As part of its response, IRCC focused on the steps that can be taken, and have already been taken to achieve these three objectives. Covering each of them individually in order to reduce vulnerabilities, and assist international students in obtaining permits, studying in Canada, and settling in.
Intending to attract international students
However, the government acknowledged that, despite increases, applications from particular nations. Also, populations are not receiving due attention from the department, despite the CIMM’s concerns. The government predicted that there will be nearly 753,000 international students holding study permits from 2022 to 2023.
Due to this, the IRCC has committed to:
- Examine the possibility of expanding the Student Direct Stream (SDS) to particular French- and Asian-speaking nations in Asia and Africa. The SDS offers a fast-track study permit application process for applicants from 14 countries.
- Creating a working group between the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees, and Integration (MIFI) and IRCC will allow researchers to look into the prevalence of study permit denials (generally speaking, and specifically for Francophone African students) traveling to Quebec.
- The Nigeria Student Express (NSE) stream, which provides study permits to Nigerian students, must be maintained and evaluated.
- Investigating the best ways to support international students’ transition to permanent residency, especially those who have the knowledge, experience, and language proficiency required to flourish in Canada.
Making sure there is equity in the program for international students
The CIMM reported to the IRCC that there were several areas where equity could be improved in the foreign student program and application processes. The International Student Program (ISP) will be evaluated and parity guaranteed by IRCC as a result:
- A voluntary customer experience survey that includes accessibility, color, and gender questions. It will help us understand how demographic differences may affect clients.
- Establish a framework for disaggregating data and analytics (DDAF). By filtering the disaggregated dataset based on characteristics, we can identify relationships based on demographic features. Data of this type can reveal how, for instance, a given policy or phenomenon affects a specific group of people.
- Studying the social well-being of immigrants based on racial diversity.
- Ensure that overseas students are selected based on criteria that are more indicative of their potential. As well as review the procedures for choosing them.
- Increasing customer satisfaction and communication.
Enhancing interaction and support for overseas students
Many CIMM recommendations highlighted the importance of giving clients and stakeholders clear, honest information, particularly about processing timelines and reasons for refusal. The IRCC has responded to these concerns by:
- To help with processing capacity and publish monthly backlog data. Also, A total of 1,250 more processing employees have been hired by the end of 2022.
- The IRCC has committed to collaborating with Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) on the gathering of international student enrolment and status data. The DLIs submit the data elements to IRCC in real-time.
- The government indicated a desire to continue programs like the 2022 pilot program, where immigration officers were required to release their decision notes along with selected temporary residence visa (TRV) applicants proactively during the decision process to facilitate transparency and understanding.
