I'm not sure how to achieve this from a policy standpoint without unduly disallowing high value immigrants. Disqualify certain institutions for student visas? Only allow bachelor-level programs and higher to issue student visa?
For TFWs, in theory, receiving businesses used to have to generate an LMO or Labour Market Opinion showing that there was a need that couldn't be met by domestic labour supply.
How about we start there w/foreign students in non-elite programs (elite programs are an entirely different issue).
If a college wants to take on 2,000 project manager students from outside Canada, they first need to show with an LMO that we need 2,000 more project managers, then that that cannot be reasonably generated through the domestic labour supply including through higher wages when considering prevailing global norms.
Second, the college in question should need to establish that the program it is offering, with the standards it is enforcing will meet that need; the initial requirement would look at the placement rate of its graduates in the profession described in the LMO within 12 months of graduation; and their retention rate 12 months after being hired.
Third, before we do any of that, we examine more broadly the problem of wage stagnation in Canada, particularly as compared to the United States, by also other OECD countries and resolve to address that issue and its impacts on Labour Force Participation Rates.
Fourth, we rescind the right of foreign students to work full-time while studying fulltime that's absurd. The Limit should be 16 hours per week during academic terms.
Fifth, we require that Colleges/Unis wishing to accept foreign students demonstrate that they have sufficient housing to place 100% of first-year intakes every year; we really ought to fund that, at least in part, as well.
Sixth, we ought to increase funding to Colleges and Unis (Ontario is now among the lowest in Canada on a per capita basis); to reduce their financial reliance on foreign students, and we should cap tuitions, both foreign and domestic.
For domestic students, all programs should be capped at a highly affordable rate; for foreign students, I think full cost recovery would a fair ask; but what we cannot do, and currently do is ask 25k per year for a program that costs less than 1/4 of that to deliver.
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I would take no issue w/leaving current top tier degree and graduate level programs relatively unrestricted, as for the most part these are higher value degrees with higher standards, however we still ought to make sure there is sufficient on-campus housing to match up w/those students, and we should still cap the tuition fee at something more reasonable than what we typically charge.
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On TFWs, I would impost a minimum annual salary, and peer-comparable salary rule (higher of the two); and make the LMO non-negotiably mandatory.
* Minimum annual pay would the median salary for all Canadians
* We would have to waive this for agriculture temporarily as we simply couldn't make it work, we're too reliant on low-cost migrant labour, but we should do something about that, and be kinder that very necessary workforce.
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk
www.brookings.edu
