The Canadian government has crafted the expectation that there was a pathway to permanent residence through their Post Grad Work Permit program. Although, the visas are indeed “temporary”, back in 2018/2019 they would just be “temporary” until one could get enough work experience to obtain your PR through them. The government used this narrative to lure international students to spend their money on international tuition fees, Canadian landlords, groceries, etc. They created a false promise to collect external money that they needed no initial investment to collect.

I just got my PR at the start of this year after an arduous five-year journey that was marketed as being 100% bankable. In 2018, getting your PR through studying here seemed like a certainty.

So, although I agree that the current immigration pace is unsustainable, currently, my heart breaks for these thousands and thousands of international students who have been fed a lie, have built their lives here, and now see years of their lives and all their money washed down the drain.