Leaders of some college institutions in Quebec say that 80% to 90% of international students they have accepted from Africa are denied study permits by the federal government, compromising their ability to deliver programs and raising questions about the bias of the immigration system.
At the CÉGEP de la Gaspésie et des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, only two of the 19 African students who were accepted and who applied for study permits were able to obtain one, according to its director general. At Collège d’Alma, in Lac-St-Jean, 20 students out of 139 obtained a permit.
Representatives of both colleges say that by comparison, almost all students who apply from France are accepted.
Yolaine Arseneau, director of the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, maintains that the refusal rate for African students is 89%. “We think that’s huge,” she said.
In a telephone interview, Ms. Arseneau added that the situation was frustrating for the college, which goes to great lengths to recruit international students. Not to mention the impact on the students themselves. “It must be very discouraging for them,” he said.
Frédéric Tremblay, head of communications at Collège d’Alma, believes that there is a distortion between the governments of Canada and Quebec, particularly in regions outside of Greater Montreal, which are faced with an aging population and to a labor shortage.
He reports that the main reason given for denying study permits is that authorities do not believe the applicant will return home after graduation, even though the province hopes to retain them. “It’s advantageous for Quebec to get students who already speak French and who can be trained here to keep them in the job market,” he said.
Sometimes, he said, students are turned away on the grounds that they don’t have the financial means to support themselves, even though they received full scholarships.
The refusal of permits for students coming from Africa is not new, and it is a problem at all levels of education and in all provinces, said Francis Brown Mastropaolo, director of international affairs for the Federation of cegeps. But in his opinion, Quebec CEGEPs and their future students are the hardest hit.
Rejection rates vary by country, he said, and some of the highest are in French-speaking African countries where Quebec seeks immigrants, such as Algeria and Congo. At the same time, rejection rates tend to drop with higher levels of education, meaning that rejections at the college level are higher than those for master’s and doctoral applicants.
Overall, Francis Brown Mastropaolo estimates that 80% of college study permits in Francophone Africa are denied by the federal government, compared to 30% to 35% for Indian students and 20% for Chinese students.
According to him, the colleges most affected are those in the outlying regions of Quebec, which have a low enrollment rate and need the boost of international students to be able to maintain the programs.
“Sometimes having three, four, five international students allows us to start the program for a three-year cycle, and therefore there is more access for local students,” he observes.
Yolaine Arseneau believes that more French-speaking international students both provide a potential future workforce and help ensure the survival of programs for the benefit of locals. In addition, students from diverse backgrounds enhance the student experience through “intercultural exchanges”, she added.
While college officials can’t say for sure if racial bias is a factor in varying acceptance rates, they say it’s at least a possibility that even the federal government acknowledges.
Francis Brown Mastropaolo was one of many experts who testified when the House of Commons Committee on Citizenship and Immigration began studying the issue in February.
The committee produced a report with 35 recommendations, including for more transparency on the reasons for refusals, to regulate recruiting agencies to guard against fraud, and to work with schools and provinces to reduce misunderstandings that can lead to refusals.
The committee also called on the Government of Canada to clarify the rules to ensure that a student’s application is not jeopardized because they eventually want to settle in Canada.
In a response filed Sept. 28, the federal government acknowledged the issues raised.
“While all applications are assessed against the same criteria, regardless of the applicant’s country of origin, the department recognizes that the impact of racism and historical discrimination extends to Canada’s immigration system,” said writes Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
“While approval rates for study permit applications for those intending to study in Quebec are similar to those for other provinces, more work is needed within the department to understand the differences in study permit approval rates between Africa and other regions. »
In its 20-page response, the government pledged to work with the Government of Quebec on study permits. It also agreed to work on providing better information about its application process, increasing training and resources for its staff, and revising the way it assesses applicants, including ensuring that those who may eventually want to immigrate in Canada are not penalized.
Francis Brown Mastropaolo said that after years of work, it’s encouraging to see the federal government finally acknowledging the system’s long-standing problems. “Now what we want to see are results.”