Othering International Students: Exploring the Conflict Between Student Visa Policy and Canada's Commitment to Multiculturalism

Abstract

In 2024, the federal government announced a radical transformation in its policy regarding international student visas, including a drastic reduction in the number of such visas over a two-year period. The government’s public argument was that the increasing number of international students was putting pressure on the country’s housing and social service infrastructure. The truth is that students are the victims, not the cause of these problems. Facing squalid, cramped conditions - when they can find accommodations at all - many of them live the realities of food insecurity, absent, insufficient, or culturally inappropriate mental health support, and myriad other challenges that go largely unnoticed in the mainstream (or online) media and by the general public. There is, arguably, an undercurrent of racism and xenophobia that is motivating these policy changes. This paper examines the history of multiculturalism and its intersection with the experiences of international students in Canada.