International students filed a record of 20,245 asylum complaints last year, with 2025 on the right track to exceed this number, according to Federal immigration Data obtained by Global News.
Affirmations increase, even if Ottawa cuts the number of study permit he is in problems, with Prime Minister Mark Carney Committing to his predecessor Justin Trudeau to make Canadian immigration to “sustainable levels”.
Recently published figures also suggest that 2025 could see an even higher number of claims by foreign students. In the first three months of the year, international students deposited 5,500 Asylum complaintsAn increase of 22% compared to the same period last year.
Immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada data show that the number of international students looking for asylum last year was almost double the figures for 2023 and six times higher in 2019.
Immigration lawyers claim that the figures will continue to get upwards, because the federal government restricts the ways previously available to the permanent residence and as the back For cases of continuous balloon judgment.
“The government has closed many doors to international students to apply for a permanent residence through regular rivers,” said Chantal Desloges, an immigration lawyer and refugee based in Toronto.
“Consequently, it is a question of channeling people to seek other solutions.”
Pressure is developing at “reward” levels
During his first press conference as Prime Minister, Carney repeated his commitment to cap the total number of temporary workers and international students within five percent of the Canadian population by the end of 2027, against seven%.
“This will help facilitate housing strains, on public infrastructure and social services,” said Carney on May 2.
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The Prime Minister is expected to unveil his cabinet – and potentially a new minister of immigration – on Tuesday.
Warren creates, a certified immigration specialist and a lawyer in Ottawa, says that Carney, like Trudeau, undergoes a lot of political pressure to “go up” immigration levels.
“They realized that they had to do something to slow down, to reduce figures, even if there would be harmful effects-harmful effects on people, their families and their employers,” he told Global News.
“We have a health care crisis. We have another crisis in housing. Have refugees created this? No.
Last year, Ottawa reduced the number of international study permits by 40% to around 360,000. It also limited eligible working hours for foreign students and tightened the rules concerning the work permits available to their spouses.
These changes were part of a series of measures announced to cool what the previous minister of immigration, Marc Miller, described as a “overheated” system, and in order to retract the so-called “Mills diploma”.
“”There are certain sectors of our economy which have really benefited from international students, “said Loges.
“You have lots of students who have crossed the system, have a diploma that is really worth nothing,” she said. “Now, they are not eligible for work permits or even if they have worked for a while, they will still not be able to translate this by a permanent residence in Canada.”
In a press release, an immigration, citizenship and refugee Canada spokesperson said that study permits are generally issued for the duration of a study program – often covering several years – suggesting that the effects of government’s admission of the students have not yet taken.
“When we consider the total number of study permits issued before measures were introduced to stabilize the international numbers of students, the proportion of permit holders claiming asylum remains low,” the press release said.
Where were the highest claims?
Post -secondary establishments with the greatest number of international students tabled asylum complaints in 2024 were:
- Constoga College: 720 complaints
- Seneca college of applied arts and technologies: 650 complaints
- University of Quebec in Chicoutimi: 500 complaints
- Niagara College Canada: 495 complaints
- Ellis college – Campus Trois -Rivières: 475 complaints
Global News contacted the institutions to comment.
The University of Quebec in Chicoutimi described the disturbing situation, but said it was the one she had no control.
“We are unable to know the intentions of international students when they are admitted to the university. We select them on the basis of their academic file,” the university said in a press release in French.
The Niagara College said that it was open to working with the federal government to support “Canada’s objectives as part of the refugee program”, but adds immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada does not inform school when a complaint is made.
In a declaration in French, Ellis College underlined a “significant lack of communication” between the federal and provincial immigration services and educational establishments, explaining that the college has no way of knowing whether a potential student he initially accepted between Canada only to claim asylum.
Stéphane Delisle, director general of Ellis College, said that his establishment had asked the federal government to be informed as soon as one of its students made a complaint, but has received “no response” to its request.
“With the lack of information from the federal government on the origin of students looking for asylum, the Ellis college will have no choice but to take the initiative to close admissions for certain French-speaking African countries,” he said.
People looking for asylum in Canada must demonstrate that they face a well -founded fear of persecution if they were to be returned to their country of origin.
Each complaint is evaluated by its own merits, the acceptance rates varying considerably from a country of persecution presumed to another.
Applicants are already faced with a long expectation that their files be heard, the Immigration Council and Canada refugees working on an backlog over 281,000 cases.
Although there may be concerns about the integrity of the asylum system, Desloges says that there are also legitimate affirmations made by foreign students.
“Suppose someone, perhaps six years ago, came to Canada as an international student in Ukraine. Right now, the situation is completely different, “she said.
“”This does not mean that it is a false assertion, just because they came as an international student. »»