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Understanding international students

May 15, 2020

New research into the social characteristics of international students provides a window into the pathway from student to permanent resident. 

International students are important to Canadian society on many fronts. With almost three-quarters of a million international students in 2019, Canada became the third most popular destination in the world, next to the United States and Australia. Over the past 20 years, the international student population in Canada has grown sixfold, and in the last decade alone, it has tripled.  For Canada, international students are a vital source of highly skilled, new permanent residents. For the educational institutions where they study, international students invigorate the learning environment and provide an important revenue stream. For the “returning” country, the students bring back new skills and ideas and contribute to cross-cultural understanding.   

With recent border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an unprecedented and abrupt halt to the flow of international students. New research documenting the characteristics of international students has become all the more important.

Marshia Akbar, a senior research associate with CERC Migration, and Valerie Preston, a professor at York University, undertook an analysis of the  (PDF file) Social characteristics of international students in Ontario & Quebec (external link, opens in new window)  for the Building Migrant Resilience in Cities (BMRC) (external link, opens in new window)  research program. The researchers analyzed the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) for the period 1980 to 2015 to create a full profile of the social characteristics of international students who transitioned to permanent status in Ontario and Quebec. This helped to inform locational patterns of conversion to permanent residency.

“We undertook this study to better understand the characteristics of students who take up permanent residency,” says Akbar. “The path from international student to permanent resident should be reasonably easy for individuals wanting to immigrate to Canada. Instead, we see low transition rates to landed status, with only 38 per cent of international students converted to permanent residency over the period of study. This research could provide insights on where to focus future studies to uncover potential barriers to immigration.”

Because the vast majority of Canada’s international students enroll in institutions in Ontario (49 per cent over the period of study) and Quebec (17 per cent), the report compares the characteristics of those international students who transition to permanent status in these two provinces, looking at the total number of student conversions, their level of study, gender, and language fluency.

“This kind of comparative data can also help service organizations that support international students to better tailor their programs,” adds Akbar.

Notable differences between the provinces include:

  • International students are more likely to attend universities in Quebec (62 per cent) than in Ontario (25 per cent).
  • Almost half of Quebec’s international student population is bilingual compared to only 3.7 per cent in Ontario.
  • In both provinces, male international students are more likely to enroll at universities than female, and that gender difference is larger in Ontario (37 per cent male versus 29 per cent female have degrees at the time they become a permanent resident).
  • Men comprise the majority (58 per cent) of international students who became permanent residents in Quebec, whereas they represent slightly less than half (49 per cent) in Ontario.
  • Of the international students who became permanent residents, 51 per cent became residents of Ontario and 16 per cent became residents of Quebec.

In summary, the data show that a larger number of international students attend school and convert to permanent residency in Ontario. Yet Quebec has a higher percentage of international students following a university career path compared to Ontario, where the majority took college and other skilled training. The bilingual language requirement of Quebec and the lower conversion rate from international student to permanent status suggests that a more specialized educational interest may be influencing the differences in Quebec.