On April 29, 2024, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced a significant update to the limit of off-campus work hours for international students. The Canadian Federation of Students welcomes the announcement to extend the permanent number of hours from 20 to 24 hours per week. However, the Federation has serious concerns that this discriminatory policy is allowed to stand and continue as is. 

24 hours per week is not enough for anyone to be able to afford to live in most cities, especially in living conditions that are not precarious. Over the past several years, many stories have been told of international students having to take turns sharing beds or living in tents because it is too expensive to live in the same place as their studies. On average, international undergraduate students pay over $38,000 in annual tuition fees and $22,000 for graduate programs. The recent requirements of doubling the cost-of-living financial requirement and an international student cap will further incentivize institutions to continue raising tuition fees, despite the fact that international students pay close to 6 times more than domestic students. This means that on average, a first-year undergraduate international student that wants to study in Ontario, where the average tuition is $46,433, will need to provide a minimum of almost $70,000 before travelling to Canada. 

How can we expect international students to be able to afford to study when they are faced with so many financial barriers? 

Domestic students are allowed to work as many hours as they can, and many already work a significant amount of hours just to afford to go to school, often working 2 or 3 jobs just to get by. This disparity is greater given the fact that in many instances employers are allowed to favour applicants for jobs based on citizenship, making it more likely for international students to work in precarious employment. Yet, there is no cap announced on the amount of hours domestic students get to work. 

This policy is another example of a two-tiered education system. One that works one way for domestic students and one that works completely against international students. 

We want students to be students. We do not want students to have to work multiple jobs to afford an education. Unfortunately, because of the rising cost of tuition and multiple crises that students face, it is not possible for any student to pursue an education without some form of work. In the midst of an affordability and housing crisis, we cannot continue to maintain significant barriers to pursuing an education for all students. 

It is becoming less likely with these measures that students outside of the wealthiest families will be able to consider if studying in Canada is an option, which will see disastrous consequences in the long-term given that many institutions are heavily reliant on the soaring high cost of international student tuition.

We continue to call on Minister Miller to waive working restrictions for international students, work with provinces to guarantee financial assistance at all levels of government, and address the disproportionate disparities present in tuition fees. 

The Canadian Federation of Students is Canada’s oldest and largest students’ union, uniting more than 530,000 college and university students in the demand for high-quality, public, post-secondary education. 

‍