Thank you for asking me the question and thereby giving me the opportunity to tell you about what international students have to go through, which is sometimes described as an obstacle course.
I will use a student from Cameroon as an example. Let's call her Amina. She is about to graduate from high school. She goes to an EduCanada fair in Cameroon, where she meets officials from Global Affairs Canada and some representatives from CEGEPs. They give her advice and help her to complete her application, which she submits promptly. She is accepted. Given the quality of her record, she receives an academic scholarship from the Quebec government. As I mentioned, the scholarship provides $14,000 for living expenses and also waives tuition. After obtaining her Certificat d'acceptation du Québec, Amina is able to submit her complete application for a study permit to the Canadian visa office around the end of April. For 20 weeks, Amina receives no news from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, IRCC. The CEGEP tries to reassure her as best they can. For CEGEPs, the school year starts sometime between August 20 and 25. Amina receives an answer from IRCC between September 5 and 10. The answer is a refusal.
What are the typical reasons for a refusal? First, the officer is not convinced that Amina will return to Cameroon when she finishes her studies in Canada. Second, the officer does not feel that the proposed program of study is reasonable, given her career path or other educational opportunities available to her locally. Those are the reasons often given.
At this point, let's ask some questions. First, how can an immigration officer judge whether or not Amina will return to Cameroon, especially when the various levels of government have established a wide range of incentives for temporary residents, especially international students, to become permanent residents? Then, how is an immigration officer an appropriate substitute for the authority of an institution of higher learning in expressing an opinion on someone's academic career? And finally, is it an immigration officer's role to assess the validity of the education system in Canada, or, in this case, in Cameroon?
In total, Amina spent 10 months of her year convincing her parents, gathering some extra funds, preparing for her stay and obtaining a scholarship. Basically, she has to abandon her plans and she does not really understand why. The CEGEP cancels her stay, also without really understanding why.
That's the basic problem: no one understands why. CEGEPs meet with many quality candidates and, after reviewing their files, decide to award them scholarships because they believe that they have what it takes to succeed. So why are they being turned down?
Amina will continue to talk about Canada, as will her parents, but the discourse will change. It will no longer be to dream of the maple leaf; it will no longer be about the snow, the cultural experience, or the quality of the education. Instead, Canada will become a synonym for dashed hopes, an obstacle course with traps everywhere.
Amina's story is the story of thousands of French-speaking students from Africa whom we in the CEGEPs meet every year when we are taking part in various recruitment activities, including the EduCanada fairs.