Canada needs a more welcoming system for international students: Editorial

Canada’s immigration system should be more welcoming to international students, write Katrina Plamondon (University of British Columbia), Melisa Valverde (Memorial University), and Susan J Elliott (University of Waterloo). Plamondon, Valverde, and Elliott write that many students are interested in studying in Canada, but that graduate students and postdoctoral fellows face severe delays in pursuing these studies. Study permits for over half a million people were declined between 2016 and 2020, and the situation worsened during the pandemic. The authors write that these delays disproportionately affect students from low- and middle-income countries, perpetuating systemic discrimination in addition to causing applicants anxiety since they cannot make firm plans. The authors call for Canada to address issues such as anti-African racism, transparency, and the IRCC backlog to support international students. The Conversation Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.

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