Brampton protestors call for extension of 70,000 international student work permits

There are growing calls in Brampton for Canada to extend post-graduation work permits for some 70,000 international students who are facing deportation.

A march was held in Brampton on Saturday with international students from India and the Naujawan Support Network demanding extensions for all post-graduation work permit (PGWP) holders set to expire in 2024-2025.

Organizers say some 70,000 international students have work permits that are set to expire – workers who they claim have been used as “cheap labour” by Ottawa.

Dozens of students and supporters gathered in Chinguacousy Park for the rally with a motto of “good enough to work, good enough to stay.” The Naujawan Support Network said the student’s demands include a five-year permit for all international students in Canada and changes to pathways to permanent residency, also known as “draws.”

“The Canadian government greenlights employers and colleges to exploit hundreds of thousands of international students for profit,” reads a post promoting the rally posted online.

“After using us for cheap labour, especially during COVID, they discard us. Like so many workers in Canada, we refuse a lifetime of precarity.”

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GOOD ENOUGH TO WORK, GOOD ENOUGH TO STAY

International students are organizing to demand an extension of their post-graduate work permits set to expire in 2024-25. Without an extension, tens of thousands of workers face deportation.

RALLY: June 2, 4 pm, Chinguacousy Park

🧵 pic.twitter.com/2cCKIGFnFY

— Naujawan Support Network (@NSNPeel) May 31, 2024

The permits are usually up to three years allowing international students to temporarily stay and work in Canada after graduation. And while getting a PGWP doesn’t guarantee a student’s path to becoming a permanent resident (PR), the program offers learners from other countries work experience that may help them stand out if they seek to emigrate permanently.

But protesters say a backlog in PR requests dating back to the pandemic means PGWP holders are being shut out of a pathway to residency and could be sent home.

Similar protests have popped up in Prince Edward Island and B.C. as federal and provincial governments have made significant changes to international students programs in the last year.

Some 130 International students at Brampton’s Algoma University also protested and challenged their grades, saying they were “failed intentionally” by one professor.

The feds put a cap on the number of international students coming to study from abroad, a move expected to cut admissions in Ontario by half.

Ottawa has also banned students at schools that follow a private public model from applying for a PGWP, doubled the cost-of-living requirement for Canadian study permit applicants to $20,635, and lengthened the time graduating international students could work in Canada without an employment visa.

Under the new provincial rules, Ontario schools accepting international students cannot exceed the institution’s 2023 permit levels. More than 70 “diploma mill” schools were blocked from international student recruiting in Brampton under the new provincial guidelines, according to Mayor Patrick Brown.

All but one of Ontario’s universities were allowed to keep international student applications at the 2023 level, with only Algoma told to decrease numbers.

A report to city council last year showed that Algoma had 8,762 international students while Sheridan College in Brampton had 9,331 between in 2022 to 2023.

Kitchener’s Conestoga College had the most new international students in Ontario with more than 31,400 acceptances, according to the report.

International students in Brampton also face potentially unfit living conditions according to data that found over 60% of Indian international students live in unsuitable housing.