The number of study permits granted by Canada to Indian students dropped sharply in the last twelve months, as a result of a diplomatic dispute over the murder of a Khalistani terrorist leader in Canada, a top Canadian official stated on Wednesday (17th January). The number of Indian students seeking to study in Canada has gone down by a huge amount. Moreover, the Canadian govt is also unable to process applications at previous levels due to a reduction in counsellor staff after India expelled Canadian diplomats who would process the permits.
In an interview, Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated that he does not anticipate the number of study visas for Indians would increase anytime soon. Diplomatic tensions erupted in June when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that there was evidence linking Indian government operatives to the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
Miller believes that the tensions will continue to weigh on the numbers in the future. “Our relationship with India has halved our ability to process a lot of applications from India,” Miller said.
In October, Canada pulled 41 diplomats, or two-thirds of its staff, out of India on orders from New Delhi. Furthermore, the conflict has led Indian students to pursue higher education in other nations, according to a ministerial spokesperson.
These reasons resulted in an 86% decrease in study permits awarded to Indians in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the previous quarter, to 14,910 from 108,940, according to government figures not previously revealed.
C. Gurus Ubramanian, counsellor for the High Commission of India in Ottawa, stated that some Indian international students were considering alternatives to Canada due to “concerns, in the recent past, regarding the lack of residential and adequate teaching facilities” at several Canadian universities.
In recent years, Indians have made up the largest group of international students in Canada, accounting for more than 41% (225,835) of all visas in 2022.
“I can’t tell you about how the diplomatic relationship will evolve, particularly if police were to lay charges. It’s not something that I see any light at the end of the tunnel on,” Miller said.
International students are a cash cow for Canadian universities, bringing in over C$22 billion ($16.4 billion) per year, and a slowdown will be detrimental to the institutions.
In June, Canada stated that there were “credible suspicions” linking Indian agents to the murder of Nijjar in a Vancouver neighborhood. India has denied the accusations. Canadian authorities are yet to charge anyone for the murder.
Last year, the US Justice Department indicted a 52-year-old man who collaborated with an Indian government employee in plotting to kill a New York City citizen who pushed for a Sikh independent state in northern India.
The Canadian government has also been working to restrict the overall number of overseas students entering the country, in part due to ongoing housing shortages.
“Right now we have a challenge with the sheer volume of students coming in,” Miller explained. “It’s just gotten out of control and needs to be reduced, I would say, significantly over a short time.”
Miller stated that the government would implement additional measures to reduce the number of overseas students during the first half of this year, including a possible cap. Canada is a popular choice for overseas students because it is very simple to secure work permits after completing courses.
The administration aims to address “a very generous” program for postgraduate work permits and to crack down on “fly-by-night” universities known as designated learning institutes, he stated.
The government has previously announced plans to limit the number of off-campus work hours for overseas students, which the food service and retail businesses fear may result in labor shortages.
In 2023, the government predicted that over 900,000 international students would study in Canada, roughly three times the number a decade earlier. Miller reported that 40% of those students, or around 360,000, were Indian. The number of licenses issued to Indian students decreased by 4% last year, but they still remained the largest group.