By Mandee Mitchell

On November 15, 2022, the 20-hour cap on international students’ weekly work hours was temporarily lifted until December 31, 2023. Put in place to address the labour shortage in Canada, the policy will allow international students working off-campus to work as many hours as wanted.

Previously, International students who applied to an eligible Canadian education program may have gotten authorized to work off-campus during their time studying in Canada, for up to 20 hours per week. It was put in place to allow international students the opportunity to support themselves financially, while also working to ensure that students focus on their studies and not on working while in Canada. This policy was lifted during the summer and winter holidays, with students having no limit on the hours they were allowed to work off-campus.

Students working on-campus will not be affected by the change, as on-campus work was already not restricted in terms of the number of hours students can work while classes are in session.

In their official press release, IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) explained the lifting of the restrictions on international student work hours, “from November 15, 2022, until December 31, 2023, international students who are in Canada and who have off-campus work authorization on their study permit will not be restricted by the 20-hour-per-week rule. Foreign nationals who have already submitted a study permit application, as of today, will also be able to benefit from this temporary change, provided their application is approved.” 

The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship addressed the change as being advantageous for both Canada’s economy and students, stating that “by allowing international students to work more while they study, we can help ease pressing needs in many sectors across the country, while providing more opportunities for international students to gain valuable Canadian work experience and continue contributing to our short-term recovery and long-term prosperity.”

“In the past, nearly half of the post-secondary international students in Canada reported earning income during their studies.” Seeing the potential in the workforce currently in Canada, “with more than 500,000 international students already in Canada available to potentially work additional hours,” the IRCC recognized the importance of lifting the restrictions and the untapped labour force that is currently in Canada.

There is concern that in lifting the restrictions, international students’ priorities will start to shift towards work instead of study, causing a drop in class enrolment, grades, and campus engagement. The IRCC addressed this concern by stating that “study permit holders are still expected to balance their study and work commitments, as those who stop studying or reduce course loads to only study part-time are not eligible to work off-campus.”

Abigail D’Souza, an international student currently working off-campus, has been having conversations with her friends and coworkers about the restrictions being lifted, noting that her group of friends are mostly in support of it. “I think it could be beneficial to many international students because there are so many that are struggling and many are very happy about this change.”

 “There are a lot of students who are struggling to make ends meet, and many are very excited about how they can work more and adjust their schedule accordingly. Because 20 hours is not that much at all and many of my friends have been vocal about how domestic students can work however much they want” The topic of the difference in rules between domestic and international students is something that D’Souza has been very vocal about with those around her.

The Canadian government explained that the change was implemented to address the labour shortage in Canada, bringing the question of intent for students. D’Souza believes that the government should have addressed the change in a different way, “I feel like they should have said that this will help international students rather than just labour shortages because it just feels like it’s not for us, it’s just for them, like for the country.”

“International students have to pay considerably a lot more to study here and sometimes they don’t have any other choice but to work to study, I mean, work in order to pay for their studies.”

Implementation is a question that D’Souza is also contemplating, mentioning that the lack of communication about this change has some students worried about how to address it with their employers, or if it will be decided for them. 

When asked if D’Souza will personally be taking advantage of the restrictions being lifted, she noted that instead of having a discussion of changes to her schedule, her employers are already scheduling her to work over 20 hours, without notification, and that it is happening to her coworkers as well, “my management has not really even told us anything about it, they just randomly put me for 20.5 hours this week, but I didn’t even ask for an increase of my hours.”

While generally in support of the change, as it could financially assist them, D’Souza thinks that employers may overly take advantage of international students’ willingness to take as many hours as they can. “Maybe management is abusing it because I’ve seen a lot of people who have got 40 hours and they didn’t even ask for it”

On the opposite side of the issue, D’Souza is worried that people looking for a job may have a harder time finding work, attributing the increase in workable hours for those already working to a decrease in open positions. D’Souza was open about the struggle that she has seen her friends face while trying to look for jobs lately, “to people who don’t have jobs yet, it’s going to be really hard for them to get jobs now. A couple of my friends are like, trying to get a winter job and no one’s hiring. So I think it’s going to be hard for new people to enter the labour force.”

Despite being in support of the trial period, D’Souza still has her reservations, “I think a lot of students are going to be working rather than studyingand, or maybe they’ll take less courses and they’ll take more hours at work, but it will be interesting to see how they are going to balance both school and work. But, I’m not really sure if its a good, if it’s an entirely good thing or not.” 

Kendell Gunderson, an assistant manager at a local Kamloops business, gave some insight into the topic. Although she did not want to name her workplace, in fear of possible retaliation from higher management, Gunderson was willing to comment on the change of the restrictions.

When asked if her workplace would rather hire more employees or take advantage of the increased hour availability and maintain a smaller amount of employees, she responded that their business will “have to juggle what would be better, more employees with less hours, or less employees taking more hours.”

As someone involved in the process of hiring staff, Gunderson explained how her workplace had previously kept to hiring workers with a less limited schedule availability. “In the past when we were looking through resumes and we would see someone that could only work 20 hours a week, that’s a little low compared to what we are looking for.” Gunderson emphasized that people, especially students, were avoided due to the restriction, although she had not known it could have been because of the restrictions on international students.

Gunderson believes that the change will be a good thing for the economy as well as students, “I think in turn it will solve a lot of the employment (labour) shortage and will allow more businesses to stay open later or to accommodate more, or to satisfy the customer a little bit better than what they were doing before.”

Communication about the topic has largely been kept low-key, with both students and employers hearing about it from each other, rather than any official sources. While asking students of a third-year communications class, multiple responded that they had heard nothing of the restriction, nevermind the lifting of them. 

The lack of communication on the topic has been surprising for assistant-manager Gunderson, who mentioned that she had only heard about the change of policy from friends and employees. She replied, “I think it should be a lot more publicized because I didn’t even know that this was an issue. It makes sense why we were seeing so many people that were only available for twenty hours, but no one had told us it was a government policy,” after being asked if this topic should be communicated more to employers.

The temporary measure will need to be monitored to see its effectiveness. It will be up to the Canadian government, working with Canadian institutions and students to determine if the outcomes of this change support the permanent implementation of the lifting of the 20-hour workweek cap, or if it has a negative impact on either students or the economy.


Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Press Release: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2022/10/international-students-to-help-address-canadas-labour-shortage.html