Canada Immigration Minister Marc Miller has declared that foreign students studying in Canada will be allowed to work outside the campus for only up to 24 hours per week. The decision will be implemented beginning in September.
The new law is projected to cause serious financial issues for Indian students in Canada, who make up the majority of international students. The new regulation replaced the interim exemption of the 20-hour workweek cap that was implemented in place during the COVID-19 outbreak to help with the labour shortage but the exemption ended on 30th April.
International students are not subject to any limitations on their employment hours during school breaks, including summer and winter vacations in Canada. Indian students who work off-campus find relief in covering their living expenses and grocery bills by working outside. The new law limits students to three part-time working shifts each week, which makes it impossible for them to compensate for their expenditures because most normal work periods are eight hours.
The minimum wage in Canada is currently fixed at 17.36 Canadian dollars per hour as of May 2024. In 2023, the minimum wage was $16.65 an hour prior to the increase. It is anticipated that the 24-hour restriction will make it difficult for students to make money for living expenses in expensive places like Toronto. “That’s going to be hard with the rent in Toronto and the groceries and eating out with friends and travelling. I have to think about all of that,” voiced Neeva Phatarphekar, an international student in Toronto. She was formerly working 40 hours a week.
She has already reduced her spending and moved in with friends to reduce her rental costs. She was enrolled in York University’s public relations certificate program, but she is going to switch to Seneca College to study brand management. The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic’s executive director and attorney, Deepa Mattoo, emphasised that overseas students work because they have to. “Not every student can afford to go to school without that extra income. In any structure, you have to have an equity framework,” he said.
Professor of Economics, Moshe Lander of Concordia University in Montreal, questioned if 24 hours is enough considering the amount of time needed for learning. “As an instructor, I’m a little doubtful that 24 hours still means that you can focus on your courses, or at least focus well on your courses,” he mentioned and added, “What student is not going to choose money over studying? And so, it’s just going to make the education at the post-secondary level a little weaker. It devalues the education a little bit, it devalues the degrees a little bit.”
Of the 5.5 lakh international students studying in Canada in 2022, 2.26 lakh were from India. 3.2 lakh of these students were there on student visas and worked as gig workers to support themselves and aid the country’s economy.
Canada has declared that it anticipates 606,000 applications for study permits by the year 2024. This indicates that just 364,000 of these applications will be accepted, based on a 60% approval rate nationwide. The genuine study permit cap will be established by counting the number of study permits that expire in 2024, that is, the total number of foreign students admitted to Canada will roughly equal the total number of students whose permits expire in that same year.
