Indian and Nigerian students filed the highest number of asylum applications in Canada during the first nine months of 2024, as the country moves to restrict its growing immigrant population, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data.
Of 14,000 asylum requests filed between January and September, Indian students submitted 2,290 applications (14%), while Nigerian students filed 1,990, followed by Ghana with 1,385 and Guinea with 1,095. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Iran, Bangladesh, Cameroon, and the Ivory Coast rounded out the top ten source countries.
Study permit approvals for both Indian and Nigerian students have dropped approximately 50% in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Still, Canada has issued 151,340 study permits to Indians and 21,040 to Nigerians this year.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller recently emphasized that study visas do not guarantee permanent residency. “When people came in here and decided to be students, it wasn’t a guarantee to become a permanent resident,” Miller said, announcing that work permits for international students would not be extended.
The minister cited the need to manage population growth without straining Canada’s economy as the reason for tightening immigration policies.
