In a recent University Affairs article, Capucine Coustere (Concordia University) and Lisa Brunner (University of British Columbia) examine how federal and provincial immigration policies in Québec have sparked confusion among the province’s international students. The authors highlight the contradictory nature of recent policy changes, which they contend seemingly cast international students as both the “solution” and the “problem.” They cite the Government of Canada’s cap on study permit applications and the Government of Québec’s recently tabled bill that proposes further limitations on international student numbers as key sources of uncertainty for current and prospective students. The authors warn that these policy shifts will have a human cost, as “by making the policy landscape complex to decipher [and] producing precariousness and feelings of betrayal and exclusion for those [students] who ‘played by the rules.’”
