Nearly 13,000 international students applied for asylum in Canada while studying abroad in the first eight months of 2024.
From Jan. 1- Aug. 31, 12,915 asylum claims were made by those on international study permits or study permit extensions, making up 10.8% of the 119,835 refugee claims in the same period. In August alone, 1,785 international students applied for refugee status.
This marks a marked surge in the number of international students applying for asylum in Canada. In the entirety of 2022, only 4,880 international students applied for asylum, an increase of 2.65 times in just the first eight months of 2024. Back in 2018, only 1,835 international students applied for asylum.
Of the 278,250 international study permits granted in Canada for the first three fiscal quarters, the plurality of international students have come from India, reaching 107,385. Runners -up include Nigeria at 15.685, China at 30,240, and the Philippines at 13,905.
The granting of refugee status is reserved for those who have been prosecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution from their home country and is not a means for bypassing the normal immigration process.
The figures for international students applying for asylum come as the Trudeau government has rapidly increased the number of international study permits being granted.
Between 2015 and 2024, the number of international study permit holders in Canada spiked by nearly three times from 352,305 to 1,040,985.
To combat concerns with the international student program, the Trudeau government has announced a modest decrease to the cap on annual internal study permits from 485,000 to 437,000.
The Trudeau government has also said that their government will begin to reject international student visas for schools that are not keeping active enrolment record.
In July, Immigration Minister Mark Miller admitted that the international student program was being abused by those seeking a “cheap way” to come to Canada, and that more international students should be returning to their country of origin.
However, the Trudeau government has shown few signs that they are cutting the number of international study permits granted, as in the first five months of 2024, Canada approved 216,620 study permits while 200,205 study permits were granted in the same period in 2023.