Immigration Minister Marc Miller extended the regulations on Thursday that permit half a million foreign students to work full-time in Canada, telling the media "It was popular."According to Blacklock’s Reporter, data showed the unemployment rate for Canadians increased after the rules were modified.“I don’t think students are taking jobs away from other people given the labour shortages that are happening in Canada,” said Miller. “My focus primarily is to make sure the public policy we have in place is one that reflects the ability of the student to actually do what they’re supposed to be doing, which is study without bankrupting themselves.”“Have you taken a look at what impact that extension could have?” asked a reporter. “There are labour shortages across the country,” replied Miller.On November 15, 2022, the cabinet suspended the regulations under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that restricted foreign students to working only 20 hours per week. This suspension was set to end on December 31.“Since most students are currently halfway through their school year and some are working full time to meet their needs, we will extend the temporary policy that has allowed eligible international students to work more than 20 hours a week through until April 30, 2024, the end of the academic year,” said Miller.“We are currently examining options for this policy in the future,” said Miller. He did not elaborate. “Our data shows us that 80% of international students or more work more than 20 hours a week.”A 2022 report from Statistics Canada (StatsCan) stated that under the cap, approximately half of international students in Canada were employed.“Between 2000 and 2019, the number of international students with T4 earnings increased from 22,000 to 354,000, a result of both a higher number of international students and their rising labour force participation rate from 18% to 50%,” wrote analysts.“The increases were particularly large at the non-university postsecondary level where the labour force participation rate rose from 7% to 58% and the number of participants rose from 3,000 to 173,000,” said the report Immigration as a Source of Labour Supply.On October 10, 2022, then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told the Commons “There are 500,000 international students living in Canada who can make contributions” in the workforce. “It is a great day for the economy,” he said.The immigration department has not shared any information or studies about how foreign students working in Canada affect Canadian students. According to monthly StatsCan Labour Force surveys, the number of young Canadians (under 24 years old) who do not have jobs increased from 9.2% to 10.2% after foreign students were allowed to work as many hours as they wanted.
