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Worldwide college students will be capable to work off-campus for as much as 24 hours per week beginning in September, Immigration Minister Marc Miller introduced Monday.
The Liberals quickly waived the 20-hour cap on work hours for worldwide college students through the COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to ease labour shortages.
That waiver expires Tuesday.
“ finest practices and insurance policies in different like-minded international locations, most of them restrict the variety of working hours for worldwide college students. Canada’s guidelines should be aligned or we are going to discover our applications attracting increasingly candidates whose main intent is to work and never research,” Miller stated.
“To be clear, the aim of the worldwide scholar program is to check and to not work.”
The brand new work restrict comes because the federal authorities clamps down on a surge in worldwide scholar enrolments throughout the nation.
Critics have warned that permitting worldwide college students to work full-time might flip a research allow into an unofficial work visa, which might undermine its function.
Nonetheless, the federal authorities can be listening to from worldwide college students who say they should work extra to pay for his or her research.
Miller stated his authorities is setting the cap at 24 hours as a result of that appears “affordable,” and would enable college students to work three full eight-hour shifts per week.
He additionally famous that inner work by the division exhibits greater than 80 per cent of worldwide college students are at the moment working greater than 20 hours per week.
The work hours restrict will return to twenty hours per week till September, when the federal government can implement a everlasting change to make it 24 hours.
There are not any limits on the variety of hours worldwide college students can work once they’re not actively enrolled at school, equivalent to through the summer season.
The Canadian Press reported earlier this yr that officers in Miller’s division warned the federal government in 2022 that the momentary waiver might distract college students from their research and undermine the target of momentary overseas employee applications.
Miller beforehand floated the concept of setting the cap completely at 30 hours per week. Nonetheless, on Monday, the immigration minister stated that might be too near full-time hours.
“We all know from research as nicely that whenever you begin working in and round 30-hour ranges, there’s a materials affect on the standard of your research,” he stated.
Miller prolonged the waiver on work hours in December as a result of he didn’t need the change to have an effect on college students through the college yr itself.
By Nojoud Al Mallees
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 29, 2024.
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