CILA features in the Toronto Star’s latest story on the Post-Graduation Work Permit.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Since January, Miller has made some changes to the postgraduation work permit program by stopping to issue work authorization to international graduates of public-private college partnerships, which the minister has blamed for the international enrolment surge.
He has also extended the work permits of graduates of master’s degree programs to three years while restricting work permits to spouses of international students in a postgraduate degree program only.
Barbara Jo Caruso, co-president of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, said that was a smart move.
“We should identify programs that match what the labour needs are,” she said. “If we need a lot of nurses or we need a lot of computer programmers, then those programs should have a pathway for postgraduation work permits.”
However, to make it work, Caruso warned that immigration officials must have clear messaging to prospective students about what academic programs are entitled to postgraduation work authorization and state the information front and centre on the person’s study permit, so they could decide if they still intend to come here.
“That’s really incumbent on the government to be transparent,” she said. “Otherwise, the whole international education program would take a bad hit.”
It doesn’t help that the federal government has continued to promote Canada as a destination to “Study, Explore, Work and Stay” on the Immigration Department’s website and in its international student recruitment posters.”
