The Canadian government is considering setting a maximum limit on the number of international students who can live in Canada, according to what was announced by Canadian Immigration Minister Mark Miller, especially after recent criticism of the government regarding the housing affordability crisis.
Canada has been working over the past years to advance its economy based on immigration, and in recent years it has taken steps to intensify annual immigration, but many parties have blamed the current housing crisis that the country is suffering from due to the increase in the number of immigrants and international students.
This caused an increase in demand for homes, which led to increased inflation and a slowdown in growth, with many parties demanding that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put an end to the number of immigrants and international students in Canada.
Reducing the number of international students in Canada
It is noteworthy that Canadian Immigration Minister Mark Miller indicated in a television interview with CTV that the volume of immigrants and international students is alarming and may cause the system to spiral out of control.
But he did not mention during his television interview the size of the reduction that the Canadian government was considering, and he did not mention it again in any press interview.
It is worth noting that official data issued by the Canadian Department of Immigration indicate that there are more than 800,000 foreign students holding active visas in 2022, up from 275,000 in 2012.
Statements of the Canadian Minister of Housing regarding the crisis
For his part, the Canadian Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser, said in one of the previous statements that the government has not yet taken a decision on whether it will pursue this option or not. This coincides with the recent claims and statements from a number of ministers in the Liberal government that there are proposals to set a maximum number of Foreign student visas in Canada.
After more than eight years in office, Trudeau's Liberals have lost support, with opinion surveys showing them trailing the official opposition Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre, who have lambasted the government for failing to manage the housing crisis appropriately.