‘Alarming trend’ of more international students claiming asylum: minister

Immigration Minister Mac Miller says people are using the international student program as a 'backdoor entry into Canada,' in what he called an 'alarming trend.'

A “growing number” of international students are claiming asylum in order to stay in Canada after being allowed in on student visas, Immigration Minister Marc Miller says, calling it an “alarming trend.”

Speaking to Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block, Miller said those claimants are using the international student program as a “backdoor entry into Canada,” often to lower their tuition fees, and that universities and colleges must improve their screening and monitoring practices to weed out bad actors.

He said his department is studying the issue and suggested further reforms to the program were being explored.

Miller made the comments after Stephenson asked if Muhammad Shahzeb Khan — a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec this month while allegedly plotting a terrorist attack against Jews in New York City — had claimed asylum after entering Canada on a student visa in 2023.

Miller said he could not comment on Khan’s case as it’s before the courts, but was then asked how many international students in total have claimed asylum.

“There’s a growing number, Mercedes, and 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.

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

Statistics Canada says while Canadian graduate and undergraduate students pay on average between $7,300 to $7,600 annually in tuition fees, international graduate students paid over $23,000 last year. For international undergraduate students, the annual number is over $40,000.