Banerjee says the data shows far too many foreign students were lured to Canada for post-secondary programs with little prospect of a good job in an in-demand field.

“Instead of really trying to bring in the best and the brightest to fill the labour market gaps that need to be filled, what we’re doing is bringing in low skill, low wage, expendable and exploitable temporary foreign workers in the form of students,” Banerjee said in an interview.

…

Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consulting firm, says the explosive growth of international students in business programs was largely driven by colleges in Ontario seeking ways to make up for provincial underfunding.

“I don’t think it had much to do with labour market needs, I think what it had to do with was colleges’ financial needs,” Usher said in an interview. “It was a fountain of money.”

Gross narrative. How did it work to help students?

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Canada’s recruitment of international students has tilted strongly toward filling spots in business programs, while doing little to meet the demand for workers in health care and the skilled trades, according to a CBC News analysis of federal data.

CBC obtained figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) showing the fields of education chosen by foreign students who received study permits from Ottawa to attend college or university in each year since 2018.

Experts say the figures demonstrate that neither federal nor provincial governments — nor Canadian colleges and universities themselves — focused international student recruitment squarely on filling the country’s most pressing labour needs.

At the time, officials from several colleges with large foreign student enrolment told CBC News that they ramped up their international recruitment — at the urging of both federal and provincial governments — to fill the country’s need for skilled workers.

Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consulting firm, says the explosive growth of international students in business programs was largely driven by colleges in Ontario seeking ways to make up for provincial underfunding.

She said the priorities for Ontario’s reduced allotment of international student permits will be programs that “help prepare graduates for in-demand jobs,” including skilled trades, health human resources, hospitality, child care and the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math).

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