Already grappling with Canada’s housing crisis, life is likely to get tougher for international students in the North American country. The Justin Trudeau-led government’s decision to cap the work hours for students came into effect this month.

Indians, who account for the largest group of foreign students in Canada, will have to bear the brunt of the changes, possibly facing financial distress. The new rule comes in the wake of the Trudeau government’s decision to restrict the intake of foreign students for two years to address pressures on housing and healthcare.

Let’s take a closer look.

What’s the new rule?

Canada’s new federal rule allows international students to work off-campus for up to 24 hours a week. This is a four-hour uptick from the previous limit of 20 hours per week.

During the pandemic, the government had waived the 20-hour work cap for international students.

In a release in April, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said, “In developing this change, we looked at the needs of students, policies in other countries, as well as research that has shown that academic outcomes suffer the more a student works while studying. It also strikes the appropriate balance so students have the option to work without compromising academic outcomes.”

“Looking at best practices and policies in other like-minded countries, most of them limit the number of working hours for international students. Canada’s rules need to be aligned, or we will find our programmes attracting more and more applicants whose primary intent is to work and not study,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced at the time.

He said the government needs to “support” foreign students and ensure they are “set up for success and that they’re here properly studying.”

The work restrictions are not applicable during school breaks in summer or winter.

Indians to be most affected

Many international students depend on off-campus jobs to pay their rent and cover other expenses. Before the pandemic waiver on the work limit ended in April, they could work without restrictions.

As most standard shifts are eight hours long, students will be able to work only three part-time shifts per week, noted India Today. Canada has a minimum wage of 17.36 Canadian dollars (Rs 1078) per hour.

The cap on work hours is expected to hurt Indian students in
Canada. The North American nation issued a whopping 1,028,850 study permits in 2023. Of these, 37 per cent, or 579,075, of the permits – higher than any other nationality – were issued to Indians.

This is a significant rise from 2018 when 107,070 Indian students got the study permits.

The sky-high rents and a shortage of houses in Canada were already stinging international students. The work restrictions would further make it difficult for them to meet expenses, especially in big cities like Toronto.

Mixed reactions

While international students have criticised the new rule, professors have welcomed it.

Students say they need to work to sustain themselves in Canada.

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Neeva Phatarphekar, a foreign student in Toronto, told CBC News, “That’s going to be hard with the rent in Toronto and the groceries and eating out with friends and travelling. I have to think about all of that.”

Muriel Kembou, student committee president at Collège de l’Île, said the increase in four hours from the earlier 20 hours would not “make a really big difference.” But she said it could encourage the students to concentrate on their studies.

“It is up to them to be able to balance it — balance the hours they have to work, balance the way they have to study,” Kembou told CBC News earlier.

Deepa Mattoo, executive director and lawyer at the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, said students work because of necessity. “Not every student can afford to go to school without that extra income. In any structure, you have to have an equity framework,” she was quoted as saying by CBC News.

Moshe Lander, economics professor at Concordia University in Montreal, questioned the 24-hour cap per week, given the amount of time needed to study.

“What student is not going to choose money over studying? And so, it’s just going to make the education at the post-secondary level a little weaker. It devalues the education a little bit, it devalues the degrees a little bit,” he told CBC News.

With inputs from agencies