Quebec is about to “regulate” the number of foreign students

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press Minister Jean-François Roberge

The government of François Legault wants to give itself legislative tools to limit the number of foreign students that Quebec welcomes each year. A bill to this effect is to be tabled Thursday by Minister Jean-François Roberge.

The text of the bill, which aims “mainly to improve the supervision of foreign students,” appeared on the legislative agenda Wednesday morning. The Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration has already scheduled a press conference around noon to present the main points to the media.

The government’s intentions in this area are well known. Premier François Legault has already expressed on several occasions his desire to halve the number of temporary immigrants currently housed in Quebec. Last week, he made headlines by stating from Paris that 80,000 asylum seekers should be “forced” to leave Quebec.

But that’s not all. The non-permanent resident category also includes temporary workers and foreign students.

Quebec has already taken steps to slightly reduce the size of the first category by decreeing a six-month moratorium on the low-wage temporary foreign worker program in the Montreal region. With its bill, it is now focusing on the second.

On numerous occasions, Premier Legault has publicly hinted at the broad objectives of his colleague Roberge's bill. When announcing the moratorium on temporary workers in August, his office indicated in a press release that it would allow “limiting the number of requests made by foreign students based on several factors such as the type of institution, the number of foreign students per institution, the region [and] the level of studies.”

“[It] will also aim to allow better monitoring of the situation of foreign students in the territory in order to support the implementation of targeted limitations and supervision,” we can read in the press release dated August 20.

According to preliminary data from the Quebec government, more than 56,000 foreign students took courses at Quebec universities in 2023-2024. Almost one in three came from France. At the college level, the most recent statistics consulted by Le Devoir — which concern the 2022-2023 school year — reported a total of more than 18,000 foreign students attending CEGEPs.

With Sarah R. Champagne