Reform of reception conditions in Quebec angers foreign students

Students and foreign workers from all over the world chose Quebec because an accelerated procedure has so far enabled them to enjoy better status than in the rest of Canada. Geoff Robins / AFP

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Students and foreign workers from all over the world chose Quebec because an accelerated procedure has so far enabled them to enjoy better status than in the rest of Canada. Except that the Quebec government has just changed the rules. Every Saturday for over a month, demonstrators have gathered in Montreal to denounce this reform.

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"  If coming to Quebec, I had known that I would spend ten years before having a stable situation, I would not have come to Quebec. Arriving in Quebec in 2015, Ibrahima Kone believed the promise of the Quebec government to be able to have permanent resident status soon after finishing his doctorate. Except that several recent reforms have extended this deadline.

The Quebec Experience Program, which allowed students and people employed to accelerate administrative procedures, has the lead in the wing, explains the young Ivorian "  In the course, I'm almost at the end of my doctorate, and here it comes to me… It turns all my calculations upside down. It will damage Quebec's reputation, but also research. "

Students who feel betrayed

However, Quebec has been deploying its charms abroad for several years to attract students and workers. Clément Sageste, a French actor and filmmaker, has returned to school to benefit from the advantages of the Quebec Experience Program. These advantages no longer exist: “  I feel a little bit betrayed. We change the rules in the middle of the game. There, there are no more rights acquired with this new reform, laid right there at the end of the pandemic. "

►Read also: Decrease in immigration to Quebec, the concern of the UNHCR representative

Several unions and opposition parties support students and foreign workers. For now, the new Quebec Minister of Immigration just named remains silent.

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  • Canada
  • Quebec
  • Immigration

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