Quebec university professors and students opposed to limiting student visas

Quebec university professors and students are rejecting an idea by the federal housing minister to cap the number of international study permits to help with Canada’s housing shortage.

They say that limiting the number of international students will do little to address the housing crunch, and would instead hurt university research and deprive Quebec of skilled immigrants.

“Clamping down on the number of students is not a solution,” says PhD student Oludayo Sokunbi from Nigeria, who runs a company which assists international students in applying for courses and scholarships, he says it would do a disservice to the country if limitations were put onto international student visas.

PhD student Oludayo Sokunbi from Nigeria (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)

“If you clamp down on international students, where do you think you can get to people who will fit into the skilled economy?” Sokunbi questions.

Helping over 300 students this year alone, Sokunbi says the problem is not international students, but the lack of solutions implemented by the Canada.

“As people are coming, Canada needs to also expand in terms of where they can stay,” he adds.

Over the past decade, the number of international students in Quebec has doubled. As of December 2022, there were 58,675 international students at Quebec universities, an increase of 10,000 from the year before, when they accounted for 14 per cent of the total student body. Another 19,460 international students study at public junior colleges and private career colleges.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault and other ministers swiftly rejected that idea, reminding Ottawa that education is a provincial jurisdiction.

“This is really a misguided policy. It misunderstands the causes of the housing crisis, and it doesn’t appreciate the enormous contribution that international students make to Canadian universities, to Canadian higher education in general,” says Victor Muniz-Fraticelli, an associate professor of Law and Political Science as well as an associate member at the school of Religious Studies at McGill University.

Victor Muniz-Fraticelli, an associate professor of Law and Political Science as well as an associate member at the school of Religious Studies at McGill University (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)

He says the problem in the province is the lack of housing for families, limiting international students does nothing to aid that problem.

“Are we building enough in Canada to bring house prices down? And the answer is clearly no.So how do we align incentives with the intentions of local governments, of developers, and of tenants and owners so that we can get more housing in Canada?” he questions.

“Rather than pushing those students out, let’s embrace them. Let’s encourage them to come and let’s offer them opportunities to thrive,” Muniz-Fraticelli adds.