The Canadian city of Brempton is a popular hub for immigrants, particularly from western Indian states like Punjab and Haryana. The large influx of migrants has resulted in a housing crisis in the city according to Brempton Mayor Patrick Brown. In light of this, Mayor Brown announced that the City Council had uninanimously passed a motion urging the government to require study visas to include an accommodation address in an attempt to curb the housing crisis.
The decision comes in the wake of a crisis resulting in unaffordable rentals which forces students, many of them Indians, to live in unsafe and illegal conditions in the country. According to the Mayor, the current system allows international students to be taken advantage of and is exacerbating the housing crisis.
The city, which is located west of Toronto, has roughly 6,50,000 people, with a large population consisting of Indians. According to statistics, the number of international students in Canada has crossed the one million mark, just as the country contemplates capping their arrival. There were more than 8,00,000 international students in Canada in 2022, and the federal government has said that previously it had expected more than 9,00,000 in 2023
The federal Government has been under increasing pressure to cap the number of international students, amid concerns that they are exacerbating the housing crisis and that some of them are not here to attend school. A research report by Statistics Canada revealed that around 19% of international students with study permits, do not have a record of studying at a college or university there.
As the housing crisis has been blamed on immigrants and migrant students, Brown said that it is the immigration system that needs to be fixed while supporting international students in Canada.
In a letter to the federal immigration and housing ministers last month, Brown also called on the government for a more restrictive visa policy. This included capping students permits issued annually, and prioritizing post-secondary institutions that provide housing and residence.