Admission: Canada To Reduce Slots For Nigerian Students, Other

A national cap to reduce the intake of international students is set to be imposed by the Canadian Government.

The country’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, disclosed this during an interview on Sunday with CTV’s Question Period.

Miller noted that the Canadian government will need to liaise with provincial governments “to make sure that the provinces that have not been doing their jobs actually rein in those numbers on a pure volume basis.”

“That volume is disconcerting,” Miller said, in reference to the number of international students in Canada.

“It’s really a system that has gotten out of control.”

Miller while reacting to the recent increase in Canada’s “cost-of-living financial requirement for study permit applicants, said, “The Canadian government has faced criticism for welcoming an increasing number of immigrants — both permanent and temporary residents — while the country faces an acute housing shortage.”

Miller said he’ll be looking in both the first and second quarter of this year at possibly setting a cap on international students to help reduce the demand for housing.

When asked why his government is only considering a cap now, when the idea of one has been floated for months, Miller said there’s a need to sort out numbers on a federal level before looking with “a little more granularity” at what individual academic institutions are doing in different provinces, possibly profiting off bringing in more international students.

“We need to be doing our jobs and making sure that we have a system that actually makes sure people have a financial capability to come to Canada, that we’re actually verifying offer letters,” Miller said.

“And now it’s time for us to have a conversation about volumes and the impact that that is having in certain areas.”