ICCC seeks permanent residency status for foreign students

Toronto: Canada needs structural reforms in its immigration policies to attract foreign students and must consider granting them permanent residency rights, a top official of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce has said.

"The existing Canadian immigration policies are not facilitating participation of foreign graduates in its labour force, discouraging meaningful immigration and denying them permanent residency status on technical grounds," president of Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC), DP Jain, here said.

Jain is leading a 50-member Indo-Canadian trade delegation to participate in the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and Vibrant Gujarat Summit being held in Gandhinagar from January 7 next year, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's return to India from South Africa.

"Most of the foreign students come to Canada not only to study with few rights but to immigrate with their families as soon as possible, and therefore they should be given permanent residency rights on completion of their studies."

"The existing immigration policy is vague as it does not say clearly that foreign graduates with limited rights will have to leave the country after they exhaust their work visa period and not able to find a job in their field," he said.

Among the members of the delegation are Canadian Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Deepak Obhrai, Senator Asha Seth, and former president of the ICCC Naval Bajaj.

Besides the capital of Gujarat, the delegation will also visit Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi to discuss with top officials and businesses, emerging business opportunities between the two countries and would seek cooperation between the two sides.