Reuters, January 16, Ottawa - According to a top Canadian official who spoke to Reuters, Canada issued significantly fewer study permits to Indian students in the latter part of last year as a result of India expelling Canadian diplomats who were responsible for processing the permits and a diplomatic spat over the death of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.
In an interview, Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated that he thinks it is unlikely that the number of study permits issued to Indians will increase anytime soon. After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in June that there was evidence linking Indian government officials to the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia, diplomatic tensions broke out.
According to Miller, the tensions will probably continue to affect the numbers in the future.
"Our relationship with India has really halved our ability to process a lot of applications from India," Miller stated.
On directives from New Delhi, Canada was compelled to remove 41 diplomats, or two-thirds of its workforce, from India in October. Furthermore, a minister's spokesman stated that the disagreement has led Indian students to look at studying abroad.
With 225,835 licenses, Indians accounted for 41% of all overseas students in Canada in 2022. There could be difficulties in the diplomatic ties between Canada and India, particularly in the legal domain. With an estimated yearly revenue of almost C$22 billion, international students make a substantial contribution to Canadian colleges. Despite India's denial, recent claims that Indian operatives were involved in a Vancouver murder have strained relations. A guy connected to an Indian government official was accused by the U.S. Justice Department in a different event for organizing an assassination conspiracy pertaining to Sikh sovereignty in northern India.
In response to a housing scarcity, Canada intends to lower the number of foreign students entering the country by implementing policies, potentially including a cap, in the first half of the year. The government recognizes that the current student population must be drastically reduced. Measures to curb "fly-by-night" universities and concerns about the ease of acquiring work licenses following studies have led to a reassessment of postgraduate work permits. Plans to reduce off-campus work hours are also being considered, which has led to worries about possible labor shortages in retail and food service sectors.
The government estimated that 900,000 foreign students would study in Canada in 2023—roughly three times as many as there were ten years prior. Miller said that 360,000 students, or 40% of the total, were Indian. Although they still made up the largest group, Indian students received 4% fewer visas last year.
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