Indians constituted nearly 40% of foreign students listed as ‘no-shows’ by Canadian colleges: Report
The majority of such individuals had likely not crossed over into the United States and were still in Canada, an immigration expert said.
Indians constituted nearly 40% of international students reported as “no-shows” at Canadian colleges and universities in March and April 2024, The Globe and Mail reported on Wednesday.
Of the 49,676 students who did not show up at the colleges and universities in Canada that they were meant to be attending, a total of 19,582, or 39.41%, were Indians. They accounted for 5.4% of the total Indian students tracked by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The non-compliance rate for international students in Canada – that is the share of persons who had study permits but did not attend their college or university – was 6.9%.
It was not clear how many of them arrived in Canada after getting student visas.
Chinese students accounted for 4,279 of the total number of no-shows, followed by Nigeria (3,902) and Ghana (2,712), according to The Globe and Mail.
Rwandan students were found to have the highest non-compliance rate at 48.1%, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (34.8%) and Ghana (31.1%).
Canadian universities and colleges are required to report twice a year about whether foreign students are attending the institutions as per their study permits.
The Globe and Mail quoted Henry Lotin, a former federal economist and immigration expert, as saying that most Indian students reported as no-shows were not likely to have crossed the border into the United States, but were likely to still be in Canada.
A very small share of such students would make their way to the United States, Lotin told the newspaper. “Most aspire to work and become permanent residents of Canada,” he said.
In India, the Enforcement Directorate had said on December 24 that it was investigating the role of 262 Canadian colleges and more than 4,000 Indian entities in a money-laundering case in connection with the alleged illegal trafficking of Indians into the United States via Canada.
The investigation is based on the death of an Indian family near the Canadian border as they were attempting to enter the United States allegedly illegally in January 2022 after reportedly paying smugglers to guide them. The family froze to death during a blizzard.
