Canada’s immigration policies fetching a massive number of Indian students

The Express Entry system calls for allowing foreign students to study and settle in Canada. Reports indicate that the number of foreign enrolments at Canadian university and college campuses has increased, and a significant reason for this could be the bulwark that the USA is trying to create for immigrants across the world.

A large number of students have switched over to Canada, more since Jan 2017,who had earlier preferred the UK and USA for their abroad studies. The major reasons are recent political upheavals mainly Brexit and Trump’s uncertain immigration orders. On the contrary, Canada’s welcoming hands have given a new impetus to those students’ dreams who couldn’t find a leeway earlier.

In fact, we have noticed a rapid increase in enquiries from students about universities in Canada. According to official stats, the University of Toronto has noticed 20% spike in foreign applications for undergraduate admissions. The University of Waterloo reports 25% and 41% growth in applications for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions, respectively. The University of Alberta is not far with 30% volumes of international undergraduate applications. And the McGill University has seen 25% increase in undergraduate applications from foreign students.

According to Inside Higher Ed: “Especially notable given the numbers of students involved, many Canadian universities are also reporting substantial gains in applications from India, which sends more students to the US and Canada than any country other than China. A shift in the number of Indian students choosing Canada over the US could put a strain on US universities, many of which have counted on increasing numbers of international students to balance theirbudgets.” 

As we know, the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) has been already doing its rounds increasing the number of foreign students’ enrolments in Canada. Last year the Immigration, refugees and citizenship minister John MacCallum had said: “We have committed to doing more to attract highly skilled immigrants to come to Canada and become permanent residents, because this is important to build our economy and strengthen our society.I am confident that the changes to Express Entry will be one of the many positive outcomes of the changes we will be bringing to our immigration system.” And this year we can see the outcome of their policies. The government plans to welcome nearly 300,000 new immigrants to Canada this year.

Many notable changes were noticed after Canada started welcoming immigrants. As the Leading immigration lawyer Ravi Jain, of Toronto-based Green and Spiegel LLP, said: “This new target will benefit Indians as there will be more room to bring in Indian immigrants through both the family class and the economic stream.I have already seen a decrease in processing time for my Indian clients who are sponsoring spouses and I expect that parental sponsorships will be processed faster as well.”

He further pointed saying: “With the higher number of economic class immigrants coming in every year going forward, there will be room for the government to award higher points for Indian international students so that they can once again more smoothly transition to permanent residence.”

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References: ICEF Monitor and Hindustan Times.