Spike in Asylum Applications from International Students ‘Alarming,’ Says Minister

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller is seen during an interview with La Presse Canadienne in his parliamentary office in Ottawa on May 31, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The increasing number of international students seeking asylum in Canada after entering on student visas has become an “alarming trend,” says Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

Applicants are using the international student program as a “backdoor entry into Canada,” Miller said during a Sept. 22 interview on Global’s The West Block with Mercedes Stephenson. He described the asylum bid as a way for foreign students to reduce their tuition costs.

Miller said his department is looking into the issue and suggested that potential reforms to the program are being evaluated.

The immigration minister’s comments come on the heels of the Sept. 4 arrest of Muhammad Shahzeb Khan who was allegedly on his way across the border into New York state to carry out a mass shooting in support of the Islamic State at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn. The 20-year-old was arrested by the RCMP in Ormstown, Que.

Miller has since said Khan arrived in Canada in June 2023 on a student visa granted to him the previous month.

While Miller said he could not comment on the specifics of Khan’s case as it’s before the courts, he said there is a “growing number” of international students claiming asylum.

“It’s frankly quite alarming given the volumes of people that come to this country, in theory, with the proper financial capacity to live and to pay their tuition fees, which are four times what Canadians pay,” the minister said during the interview.

“We see that it happens often within the first year of the time they’re here … often for less valid reasons than others, notably to drop the tuition fee down to Canadian rates. There’s some opportunism that’s being used and exploited there.”

Canadian graduate and undergraduate students typically pay between $7,360 to $7,662 annually in tuition fees, according to Statistics Canada. International graduate students pay $23,233 while the average fee for undergraduate students is $40,114.

International Student Cap

The federal government last week announced its plan to further limit international students entering Canada in 2025, reducing the number of international study permits by 10 percent.

The new target for international student permits will be reduced to 437,000 for 2025 and 2026, down from the 485,000 permits handed out in 2024, Immigration Canada announced on Sept. 18.

The federal cap seeks to lower the number of temporary residents in Canada from 6.5 percent of the total population to 5 percent by 2026, the ministry said. The cap is expected to help address the challenges arising from rapid population growth and the corresponding strain on housing supply.

The cap needs to be coupled with universities and colleges cracking down on lax recruiting and admitting practices to better filter out individuals with questionable motives, Miller said.

“This is a program aimed at international excellence and not a backdoor entry into Canada for whatever reason,” he said. “It’s part and parcel of the reforms that I’ve been doing over the better part of the year to make sure that we have a better international student visa system.”

Security Screening

Miller testified before the House of Commons public safety committee last week to address Canada’s security screening systems which have been a topic of study since the arrest of Khan and an alleged father and son terrorist team from Egypt. Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi were charged in July with allegedly plotting a terrorist attack in Toronto in support of ISIS.

Miller told the committee the government is “confident in the way our biometric system works in the progressive screening that operates in our country.”

He reiterated that sentiment during the West Block interview but conceded further action is necessary.

“Am I entirely satisfied of where we are today? No, I don’t think anyone in my position would pretend that, nor would the public safety minister,” he said.

“We need to have a security apparatus that is constantly evolving, but we are much better off today than we were even a few years ago before we were using biometrics, for example. And I think that’s something that Canadians can take some comfort in.”

Miller said he has asked his deputy minister, Harpreet Kochhar, to perform an internal review about the approved entries of Khan and the Eldidis. Kochhar is to produce a report within the next 30 days that will identify “deficiencies that we need to fix,” Miller said.

The minister declined to comment on how the three alleged terror suspects entered Canada without setting off any type of internal security alarm, but said resources play a role.

He said the challenges Canada is having are shared by their neighbour, the United States, noting that Mostafa Eldidi came to Canada through the U.S. on a student visa.

“This is a North America perimeter challenge that we have, and we have to constantly be evolving the security parameters that we apply to screening individuals and make sure they’re constantly adapting to threats themselves that are adapting,” he said.

“I can never be satisfied. We have to constantly make sure that we’re working to thwart these threats to Canada, because there are people that don’t have the best intentions of Canada at heart that are trying to get into the country.”