Nowadays, an increasing number of Canadian international students are feeling desperate...

When Kashish Sharma arrived in Canada from India in September 2023 to study Hospitality Management at Georgian College in Barrie, she was full of hope - hoping to gain knowledge and build her future in the industry she loves.

But last week, as this 20-year-old student completed the final project for her two-year diploma program and was about to join a local resort, she realized that the entire industry had undergone significant changes. Ninety-five percent of her class were international students, and the optimism once felt has been replaced by unease and fear.

In the past 16 months, a series of immigration policy reforms have been reshaping the landscape of higher education in Canada. Since the federal government first set an upper limit on international students in January 2024, there has been a sharp decline in the number of international students enrolled in Ontario's colleges, accompanied by millions in budget deficits, layoffs, and course cancellations.

"Nowadays, no one wants to take the risk of studying in Canada with such uncertain policies," Sharma said. She is about to graduate from the "Hospitality and Resort Operations Management" program. "I completely understand their concerns."

Source: 51 journalist's photo

Ontario colleges suffer severe setbacks:

Sharp decrease in new students, work permit applications restricted!

Ontario's post-secondary institutions have been hit particularly hard, with hotel and tourism-related education programs suffering the most severe impacts—facing not only a sharp drop in new students but also being excluded from the list of qualifications for the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program.

"These students feel deeply hurt." Alyson Swarbrick, manager of Georgian College's aviation services program, said. She had taught Sharma's class its first course and now accompanies them through graduation season. Although Sharma and others are still protected by the original policies, Swarbrick noted that they still feel uncertain. "The atmosphere of graduation for this year's students is completely different from previous years."

In the past year, several Ontario colleges have shut down hotel and tourism-related courses, with at least 22 culinary programs being discontinued.

The course Sharma is in has already been "paused" in admissions—Georgian College announced that it will not admit new students to its Barrie campus this summer, and its South Georgian Bay branch will suspend new student enrollment this fall. Some colleges predict that the number of new international students in the hotel major this fall will fall into single digits.

Ontario faces "labor shortage":

A reduction of 20,000 international students entering the workforce!

This trend has caused widespread anxiety across the industry. For many years, Canada's tourism industry has relied heavily on the "student-to-labor" pipeline provided by colleges.

"Without support from Ontario's public colleges, the tourism and hospitality industries will face severe labor shortages," Maureen Adamson, interim chair of the Ontario Public Colleges Association, said. "Currently, there is not a single college in eastern Ontario offering a culinary program, while Canadians are increasingly choosing local tourism."

The Ontario Tourism Industry Association (TIAO) estimates that this year, approximately 20,000 fewer international students will enter the workforce within the province, further exacerbating the labor shortage.

Industry insiders said customers may notice longer wait times for coffee, shorter restaurant operating hours, and reduced menu options... This trend is expected to worsen this autumn because there will be no new students joining the workforce.

Swarbrick pointed out that this might draw attention to the chain effects brought about by changes in international student policies: "By the time people really start feeling the impact on their daily lives, maybe then they will care."

In fact, Ontario's tourism industry just fully recovered in 2023. Despite inflationary pressures, tourist spending still exceeded CAD 33 billion, and related employment is expected to reach 763,000 people by 2027. However, currently, the job vacancy rate is close to 6%, with particular urgency for positions such as food service managers, chefs, and hotel front desk attendants.

Source: 51 journalist's photo

Hani Roustom, CEO of the luxury resort Friday Harbour on Lake Simcoe, said that international students have always been an important group they hired, especially in kitchen and housekeeping positions. "They play a crucial role in the success of this industry."

Georgian College offers over 300 programs, with hospitality, tourism, culinary arts, and recreation-related majors holding significant positions, almost all being two-year diploma programs.

High proportion of international student enrollments:

  • In four hospitality and tourism courses at Niagara College last fall, there were 466 international students and only 64 local students;
  • In the winter semester of Wilfrid Laurier University, the Hotel Restaurant Management program had 352 international students and 49 local students;
  • At George Brown College, 40% of the 3,000 students in the hotel and culinary programs come from overseas.

Chinese international student gives up domestic accounting background to work in fast food restaurants

just to be able to successfully apply for immigration

Fanshi Du, a 33-year-old Chinese national who previously worked as an accountant in China, chose to study hospitality and tourism management at Georgian College because here "theory combines with practice, everything is very realistic."

He works 24 hours a week in a fast-food restaurant, will intern at a Muskoka resort this summer, and plans to apply for immigration after graduation.

Some question whether the hospitality program is a "shortcut" to immigration, but educators rebut that these students learn far more than just cleaning and making beds. They learn to interpret financial statements, communicate and collaborate, solve problems, and build networks—all skills that can be transferred to other careers.

"If you ask me whether this diploma is harder than that of a legal assistant or an accountant, I might say no," Bryan Hunt, dean of the Georgian College School of Hospitality, said. "But we're cultivating an entirely different set of skills."

Hunt admitted that the industry is indeed tough: "No holidays, long working hours, low starting salaries." But experts pointed out that these are just entry-level thresholds. "Entry-level jobs are not the end, but the beginning," said Andrew Siegwart, president of TAIO. "We need to better communicate the career development pathways in the hospitality industry to the public."

Swarbrick noted that there is a prevalent bias among Canadian families: "When children say they want to work in hotels, parents' first reaction is often—'Shouldn't you find a better job?'" Added to this, the declining birthrate means fewer local students are entering the field, leading to a continued decrease in the number of people entering the hospitality industry.

Meanwhile, insufficient funding from governments for higher education and frozen tuition fees have forced colleges to rely on international students to sustain operations—the tuition paid by international students is three to four times that of local students.

This structural dependence has led to a rapid expansion of the international student population, which has also been scapegoated for Canada's housing crisis. In 2024, Canada's immigration department announced a cap on the total number of international students, planning to reduce the issuance of study permits by 35% compared to the previous year in 2025, issuing only 316,276 permits.

What makes the hospitality programs even worse is that in the fall of 2024, the immigration department released a list of qualified programs for PGWP eligibility—only 966 programs nationwide made the cut—and hospitality and tourism were excluded.

Many colleges near Ontario's tourist areas strongly opposed this decision, arguing that the list failed to consider regional differences in the job market.

"We are in one of Canada's most concentrated tourism regions," said Michael Wales, spokesperson for Niagara College. "Tens of thousands of people in the surrounding area work in tourism, and local restaurants, hotels, and attractions heavily rely on our graduates. Local students alone cannot meet this demand."

Last November, Ontario's Minister of Higher Education, Nolan Quinn, urged the federal government to include nine types of hotel and tourism programs in the graduation work permit list, but his request was denied. A representative of the Ministry of Higher Education responded: "The federal government failed to adopt a regional perspective, especially when handling hotel and tourism programs in Ontario."

Currently, several colleges including Georgian College expect a plunge of 60% to 100% in international student registrations this fall. The annual recruitment fair held by Georgian College in February usually attracted 1,000 participants, but this year only 600 attended; next year, it may be even less, with Hunt estimating "only 300."

"Our students often take on jobs that locals are unwilling to do, such as night shifts at gas stations and early morning shifts at bakeries," Swarbrick said. She noted that many people are already starting to feel the changes: "Why did my coffee take so long? Where did everyone go?" She warned that by this time next year, "the problem will explode."

"By then, people will realize that the system is really broken."

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7495524644296917504/

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