Francophone and bilingual post-secondary institutions in Ontario are struggling to recruit foreign students. Their rate of refusal of study permits by Immigration Canada is far higher than those observed in English-language colleges and universities, found The duty.
Francophone managers say they have to work much harder than their Anglophone colleagues to be able to reach their recruitment target. The only two French-language colleges in Ontario saw 67% and 73% of their future students’ study permit applications, respectively, being refused in 2021, according to data provided by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). ). This is an improvement from 2020, where the average for both was 79%. In the 22 English-language colleges listed in the IRCC database, an average of 40% of applications were refused in 2021 and 50% in 2020.
The gap is similar between French-speaking and bilingual universities on the one hand, and English-speaking ones on the other. At Hearst University, in the north of the province, for example, 72% of study permit applications for foreign students were declined in 2021 and 86% the previous year. Some 85% of requests have been made within the last two years at Laurentian University. In Thunder Bay, at Lakehead University, the largest in northern Ontario, an English-speaking institution, the situation is quite different: in 2021, only 28% of study permit applications were refused.
Bululu Kabatakaka, the director of post-secondary programs and integration at Collège Boréal, does not understand what is causing this gap. “Is there an unconscious bias in relation to French-speaking countries? he asks himself. The duty revealed in November that Ottawa was increasingly refusing students from French-speaking Africa.
The leader believes he must work considerably harder than his colleagues to achieve his targets. “When our colleagues [d’autres collèges] work 35 hours, we work 150 hours,” he says.
The same phenomenon occurs at La Cité College in Ottawa and at Hearst University. The university’s rector, Luc Bussières, criticizes the waste associated with high rejection rates: resources are wasted on recruitment, and students’ dreams are wasted, he says. “It would make our work more efficient if we had a better rate,” explains the rector. If we want 100 people, we have to make 500 offers. »
“We generally have to make 15 to 20 offers to candidates for 10 students to accept our offer and for 3 of these students to obtain a study permit,” says Pascale Montminy, director of communications at La Cité. In 2021, 67% of college study permit applications were denied. A few kilometers west of downtown Ottawa, at Algonquin College, which is English-speaking, the rate drops to 40%.
Problem difficult to solve
This type of problem has been going on for about fifteen years, says Martin Normand, director of strategic research and international relations at the Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie (ACUFC). “Institutions are calling on IRCC and its predecessors to ask for explanations and modifications, or at the very least more transparency,” said the director.
Since 2003, the federal government has wanted French-speaking immigrants to represent 4.4% of newcomers outside Quebec. The timeline to achieve the target was originally set for 2008, but was later extended by 15 years. However, Martin Normand remarks that the agents of the ministry “often reproach the students for their intention to remain in Canada at the end of their studies”, explains the director of the association. Intention to apply for permanent residency after graduation is grounds for denial of study permits, he argues. The director was among the group of witnesses who recently criticized Ottawa’s approach, which they consider contradictory, before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
According to IRCC, even if there is a possibility for an international student to eventually become a permanent resident, each permit applicant must satisfy the immigration officer that he intends to respect his obligations as a temporary resident. . Thus, each applicant “must be able and willing to leave Canada at the end of their period of authorized stay”, explains Julie Lafortune, spokesperson for the ministry, by email.
The exercise of analyzing institutions with regard to the grounds for refusal is even more complicated due to the lack of access to data. When contacted by The duty about refusal rates, management said they had never seen them. “It’s a bit of a black box,” says Luc Bussières, rector of the Université de Hearst, which has between 250 and 300 students.
From university to college
Students with a university degree in their native country would also be at a disadvantage if they wish to return to studies in a college program in Ontario, estimates Bululu Kabatakaka. In its recruitment campaign, Collège Boréal mentions the labor shortage in the province, which affects certain sectors covered by its programs, but if student candidates try to meet this need, they are blocked by IRCC, says Mr. Kabatakaka.
It would rather be a question of judging the “good faith” of the applicants, argues IRCC. A request by someone who already has a university degree to study in an unrelated field “may not convince the officer that he is a bona fide student”, cites spokesperson Julie The wealth.
“Officers need to fully understand the needs of Francophone communities in terms of immigration and labor,” says Martin Normand of the ACUFC.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.