As Doug said, there are 3,500 of us studying abroad, and 800 graduate every year. Last year, there were fewer than 200; there were 181. We've had as few as 119 of those 800 apply to come back to Canada, not because we don't want to but because the barriers are so significant, and we're so unwelcome.
International medical graduates, IMGs, are segregated from graduates of Canadian medical schools when applying for residencies. IMGs are limited, for the most part, to a small number of residency positions in a small number of medical disciplines. In B.C., out of 30 disciplines, we are able to apply to four, most in family medicine and only on the condition that when we're done licensing, we have to work where we're told.
This is why so few people come back home. They feel unwelcome. They feel they're second-class citizens, and it hurts. It's simply not viable. This is after we have proven we have the knowledge and skills expected of graduates. These barriers exist despite having proven equivalency.
We advocate for equal opportunity. Once substantial equivalency has been proven, every Canadian who meets the Canadian standard should have equal access to apply for resident physician jobs. We also advocate for uniform exams. A lot of negative stereotypes have arisen, such as that our constituents are rich kids, which is simply not true. As a matter of fact, most of our constituents are not from well-off families.
The one thing I want to advocate most strongly for is the revocation of bulletin 230. We have raised how sensible it is to have more doctors practising. Resident physicians provide necessary medical treatment. They get on the bus and they're working the first day. They're working right away.
When we asked the faculties of medicine for more residency positions, even privately funded ones, we were told the faculties simply do not have the capacity to train more doctors. That's why we made an application for the revocation of bulletin 230 in 2019, but it's been sitting, despite problems. There has been nothing but stalling.
Residency positions are jobs. Residencies provide necessary medical services. They're paid under a collective agreement. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires that before a work visa is issued to a foreigner, the employer has to go through the labour market impact assessment to prove that foreigners are not taking away jobs from Canadians.
In 2010, The faculties of medicine convinced Service Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada that they should not require this assessment, so foreigners come in and take residency positions and fellowship positions and displace the 1,000-plus people Viren was talking about.
