First, they came for the International students … blaming them for crowded colleges/university classes, apartment shortages, high rents and lack of jobs for young Canadians.
So the federal government proudly announced it would cap the number of foreign students admitted into Canada.
“Refugees and Citizenship Canada has said it will issue 437,000 permits to foreign students in 2025, down from 650,000 in 2023,” the Vancouver Sun reported.
“The drop in the number of applications received in 2025 is “a clear sign that the measures we’ve put in place are working,” said Laura Blondeau, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab.”
They’re working allright … but not as planned!
“Over 5,000 higher education jobs in Canada have been cut since the government clamped down on study permit numbers – with Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec the hardest hit,” the international education forum The Pie reported.
“Faculty at some B.C. post-secondary institutions return to mass layoffs,” CTV headlined last Tuesday.
Vancouver Community College just laid off 31 more staff … its third round of job cuts this year; Langara College fired 69 more … on top of 150 job cuts in two previous layoffs.
“You have to remember international students aren’t paying $2,000 a semester for tuition. They’re paying $10,000 or more a semester. So this is a huge revenue for numbers,” the BC Students Federation explained.
Kwantlen College reported almost 60 per cent fewer international students this Fall, “compared to Fall 2023, with just 2,360 expected to enroll in the upcoming semester.”
““Unfortunately, the continued international enrolment decline means revenue this year is now projected to be $5 to 10 million lower than forecast in the 2025-26 budget,” said KPU Acting President Diane Purvey. “With universities in B.C. mandated to operate without deficits, KPU must make difficult decisions to decrease expenses to align with our significantly lower revenues,” Daily Hive Business and Tech told its readers.
“Decreases in international students are impacting some parts of the university more significantly than others. This has included reduced operating budgets and staff reductions in some units,” said Ramsey, noting that UBC’s Applied Science department has been affected,” added The Sun.
One estimate placed Simon Fraser University’s financial loss in tuition alone at $21 million … and, the total tuition losses at institutions across Canada at more than $1 Billion.
And that does not include the billions more in spending losses off campus by foreign students … money that Canadian businesses especially cannot afford to lose during our current economic crisis.
Well, with all those foreign students being barred, at least rents must be coming down?
“We are seeing a bit of a softening at the higher end, but the people who are really in crisis, and this is a crisis predominantly for low-income working-class renters, those people are just not seeing the results of these kinds of, of these reported decreases,” the Vancouver Tenants Union told Global News.
Turns out an accompanying federal ban on foreign housing investors has resulted in unsold potential rental units and postponed/canceled new housing projects that would increase supply.
And by cutting international students, and subsequently also cutting spaces/staff/courses at higher education institutions BC and Canada have lost a lot more than money.
The thousands of young people who have come from overseas to study here have also been a highly rewarding source of recruitment for Canadian companies looking for permanent educated, professional graduates … badly needed in BC/Canada but now severely cut back.
As if that wasn’t enough, governments … provincial and federal … now want temporary foreign workers gone too!
“British Columbia Premier David Eby is calling on the federal government to make major changes to the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program — or to scrap it outright,” Global BC reported Thursday.
““Here in British Columbia, we see an unacceptably high level of unemployment among young people, which has been linked both to the international student visa program as well as the temporary foreign worker program,” Eby said.
Well, Canada did lose 66,000 jobs last month; 16,000 of them in BC.
But are foreign students and foreign workers really the problem?
“Statistics Canada said B.C.’s job losses were mainly among men aged 25 to 54,” AM1150 revealed.
Those don’t sound like student jobs to me!
“In B.C, the unemployment rate for students in August was 16.5 per cent, down more than two percentage points from the same time last year,” Global BC reported.
( In July, it was 12.1 per cent, below the national rate of 14.6 per cent, Statistics Canada figures show.)
In other words, better.
Looks to me like international students are being scapegoated!
And in addition to international students, immigrants, are also now being targeted.
“We can’t have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks. We can’t have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing. And we can’t have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment,” Eby was quoted by the CBC.
So, it’s immigrants who “fill up” our homeless shelters and our food banks ??? And it’s immigrants who are the reason for “high youth unemployment” ???
A 2024 report by Food Banks BC, did say “26 per cent of food bank users identified as immigrants or refugees with the figure rising to 39 per cent in the Vancouver coastal region. The report did not identify whether users were temporary foreign workers,” according to the Vancouver Sun.
I don’t see singling out immigrants, whether 26% … or even 39% …as being responsible for “filling up” food banks as fair, especially if the numbers of refugees are not also identified/taken into account.
Again, looks like scapegoating to me!
Let’s keep it real: temporary foreign workers do many of the jobs our own unemployed … 25 to 54 … don’t want to do … and, NO, we can’t force Canadians to take those jobs labouring in the fields, in rural/remote places, at fast food outlets, car washes, manual labour or for relatively lower wages.
But on that issue, Eby has an ally … Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
“Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants the federal government to axe the temporary foreign worker program, saying it has flooded the market with cheap labour and made it harder for young Canadians to find work,” the CBC reported Wednesday.
Poilievre offered an alternative to help Canada’s farmers:
“The Conservatives say that while they want the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program scrapped, they will create a separate, standalone program for legitimately difficult-to-fill agricultural labour.”
No doubt, where employers are exploiting foreign workers or part-time student employees (domestic or foreign) provincial and federal governments MUST act … but don’t blame the victims.
Temporary foreign workers and international students contribute to both BC and Canada’s economy … financially, in terms of providing much needed labour and even bringing us potential new citizens.
BC/Canada do have housing/economic problems: high taxes; high land costs; high construction costs; high development charges; low skills training levels; low productivity; low investment rates; and, of course, Donald Trump’s tariffs.
But it’s wrong to scapegoat international students and foreign temporary workers for the challenges taking their toll on BC or Canada now … or ever.
Harv Oberfeld
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