International students. They have been all over the headlines of Canadian newspapers throughout the 2020s, as the number of international students reached its peak sometime in mid-2024. At a certain point, the government described the phenomenon of an increasing number of international students and other temporary residents arriving in Canada as ‘unprecedented interest in Canada from applicants all over the world’. Unprecedented it was.
A lot has been said in Canadian media about the numbers, but it’s worth seeing them visualized.
Number of study permit holders with a valid permit in Canada from 2000 to 2024 on December 31st of each year
Following the cuts to post-secondary education in the 1990s, Canadian universities and colleges turned to international students as a lucrative revenue stream. At the turn of the century, when students coming from abroad were attracted to prestigious credentials which could be used in their home countries, the number of study permit holders was around 122,000. By 2008, that number grew to 180,000 thanks to the possibility of working and staying in Canada after graduation introduced by the Off-Campus Work Permit and Post Graduation Work Permit. In 2014, the government leaned further toward using international students as labor resources by merging the authorization to work on and off campus with study permits. At that point, there were 330,000 international students in Canada. In 2022, in light of the labor shortages after the Covid-19 pandemic, the government allowed international students to work an unlimited number of hours. Since 2024, the number of international students in Canada has been decreasing from its peak of over a million due to various measures designed to reduce the number of non-permanent residents down to 5% of the total population.
Beyond the numbers are lived experiences, hopes and plans, and practical reality of studying abroad. International students don’t live in a vacuum. They participate in the life of their educational institutions, and pay fees into their student unions. There are plenty of pieces about the advantages of international students to Canada, their lived experiences, which include immigration-related woes. These are wide shots, focusing on policy, economy, and immigration narratives. What is missing is a look at how student unions serve this large demographic.
Both domestic and international students on campus are working toward the same goal: finishing the program of their choice and obtaining a degree. International students have the same struggles as their domestic counterparts: academic difficulties, mental health, food and housing challenges, and the list goes on. The traditional services provided by student unions target all students, including those from abroad.
The journeys towards the graduation stage, however, are quite different between those two demographics. International students arrive in an unfamiliar environment where they must adapt to a different culture and societal norms, and communicate in a different language. They do not have the same social networks as domestic students, which are built from birth, and have to recreate them. On top of the daily challenges, there are bureaucratic restrictions enacted by the immigration authorities that limit the ability of international students to easily change programs, institutions, or work in any job they would like.
So, what do the unions do in addition to alleviate some of the difficulties experienced by international students? Let’s find out.
Spectrum of helping international students
The way student unions organize their help for international students can be put onto a spectrum from the full-on social centres, to events and occasional targeted support, to leaving the drowning to save themselves by recognizing the associations of international students, but not doing much else beyond that.
We Built You a House
Several student unions assist international students in the format that would be classified as “Social Centre” by our methodology for the Student Unions Index. Similarly to other centres that seek to help vulnerable groups of students, in this format, the help for international students is organized as a social facility. This is the most comprehensive format of assisting this demographic through a dedicated physical space with staff that runs events and initiatives.
A great example of such a student centre is at the Queen’s AMS, where the International Affairs Centre offers “International Student Mentorship Program, cultural initiatives, and ongoing advisory support”. The Centre invites all students to participate in its activities, regardless of their immigration status.
At uOttawa, the student union has International House or iHouse which brands itself as “Diverse, Inclusive, Home”. The Centre offers events, a bilingual newsletter, the International Student Resources Drive, and iLounge, the latter being a place to hangout, not a sponsorship from Apple. A cycle ride away along the canal, the Carleton University Student Association stands out by hosting a centre called “Racialized & International Student Experience” (RISE), which invites “all students of all racial, ethnic, cultural and international identities” by offering them “peer-to-peer dialogue, programming, and support.”
At Memorial University, the Students’ Union runs the International Students Resource Centre. The activities go beyond offering resources, as the Multicultural Show and Multicultural Fashion Show light up the gloomy winter nights in St. John’s.
We Drew You a Map
At UWaterloo, the Student Association runs the International & Canadian Student Network by Waterloo University Student Association, which doesn’t seem to have a dedicated physical space, but it runs plenty of events designed to connect students and give them a good time. According to their Instagram account, the network is endless fun. WUSA also lists “online discussions” as part of the service, which seem to be only for international students. Despite the absence of a centre for international students, the York Federation of Students runs a similar event called CultureFest.
Student union-run bursaries to international students also exist. There is the International Student Emergency Bursary by Dalhousie Student Union, International Student Bursary by University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, the International Supplementary Bursary through the Access Fund of the University of Alberta Student Union.
Sometimes, student unions have a dedicated person to work on behalf of international students. The Society of Graduate and Professional Students at Queen’s University has the position of the International Student Affairs Commissioner, StFX Students’ Union has a constituency for international students in the Board of Directors, and so does the Students’ Society of McGill University, Vancouver Island University Students’ Union, Thompson Rivers University Students’ Union, Kwantlen Student Association, and so on.
Good Luck Out There
A less structured way of helping international students is handing them a directory of resources, like it’s done at University of Toronto Students’ Union. However, typically such directories are organized by educational institutions, as they also provide direct support related to academics, government bureaucracy, and career development. The remaining way of helping international students for student unions is the most laissez-faire in existence — recognizing the organizations they form.
International students don’t live in a vacuum and are more than capable of self-organization. The International Students’ Association at UAlberta is a massive organization with automatic (!) membership, advocacy initiatives, and events. Not too far behind are the International Student Organization at the University of Guelph, and L’Association des étudiantes et étudiants internationaux du campus universitaire de Moncton. These associations are effectively student governments with the mandate to represent international students on their campuses.
This approach has its limitations. When international students build an organization with membership fees, elections, services, and advocacy, it can become an effective tool for addressing the challenges unique to their situation. Getting to that point is more of an exception than the norm on Canadian campuses. A while ago, at UBC, the International Students Association lobbied for student-wide elections with no success, despite the international students making up a quarter of undergraduate student population at UBC (the Association doesn’t seem to exist anymore at the time of writing). If an international student association hits a stride with competent student leaders, it may have a fighting chance of developing into a full-on student government; but if no such luck occurs, which happens most of the time, then international student clubs remain clubs within a student union at best.
Some reasons why certain student unions don’t provide any structured help for international students are fairly predictable, like the lack of money and people. Besides, if international students can’t organize themselves, what can a student union realistically do? Quite possibly something. At KU Leuven in Belgium, the student union organizes an Assembly for International Students, where international students can come to express their thoughts, concerns, and ask questions. This assembly is just a forum for students to talk. But a talking space with political will behind it could become a voting space; a voting space could produce a representative on a board of directors. It could also be the first nudge that brings international students together enough to form an association of their own.
There will not be as many international students in Canada as there were in the early 2020s, but they will always be here, continuing to navigate unfamiliar paths and reshaping this country. The least Canadian student unions can do is meet them somewhere better than “good luck out there.”
