Montreal international students protest permanent residency program closure

International students in Montreal are speaking out against the Quebec government for closing the door to applications for permanent residency through the Quebec Experience program. The international students rallied in front of the Immigration Ministry’s Montreal office on Friday. 

“We have to start from zero, either going back to our countries or moving to another province, which is like another immigration for us,” said Sahar Osati, a HEC Montréal graduate.

“Why would even the government want us to move us, graduated people, talented, and we speak both languages of this province. Why would we move? And then what? They replace us with people who just come here and are new to everything.”

Mahyar, a Concordia University graduate added, “I’m a graduate person. I’m an engineer, and construction engineer manager. But right now I don’t have any program to stay here.”

One of the organizers, Tara, who is the wife of a graduate student, says that this decision has halted dreams and caused widespread concern and despair amongst many international students and their families. 

“We were shocked all of the trust we had was gone because there was no prior notice. Even one hour if we had we could have submitted our application. The French test exam was ready. We got the results just the day that they suspended the program,” said Tara.

On October 31, the Quebec government announced that it’s freezing applications for the Quebec Experience program until June 30, 2025, at the latest, as part of temporary measures to control the growth of permanent immigration in Quebec. 

“The hope and the efforts and the attempts that were made by all the students to get this program were collapsed,” said Hossein Mohammadtaheri, a PhD student in Montreal.

Tara added, “All of our like trying to get to this community, learning their language is gone and we cannot, we cannot just forgive that like forget about how much effort we put.”

These new measures come as La Presse is reporting that there has been a record number of international students applying for asylum in Canada in the first nine months of the year that includes 3,000 applications in Quebec. 

“I understand that they want to decrease the number of immigrants. That makes sense but that decrease shouldn’t be including us that have been here, have studied here,” said Osati.

Mahyar added, “I know how to talk English. I know how to talk French with a high level of education but I think that there is no place for me here.”