The express entry system favours prospects with university degrees over college diplomas, and Green says the system is so full that college graduates will not be eligible for permanent resident status. He says the government needs to increase the number of people selected in the express entry system, because students have paid tuition and earned degrees on the understanding it would allow them to become a Canadian, some day.

“They've got to increase the number of people that have come here on their student visa to be selected for immigration, because they've gone out to the world saying: ‘Pathway to immigration,’ and it's not right now because of the way the system is set up,” says Green, who is a certified specialist in immigration law by the Law Society of Ontario.

In 2018, 572,415 international students in Canada, a 16-per-cent increase on the year, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of people coming from abroad to study in Canada increased by 68 per cent, said the federal government’s International Education Strategy, released in October. The government also said, in 2018, international students added $21.6 billion to the GDP through tuition, accommodation and other expenses.

“Just by virtue of the number of foreign students coming in, there won't be a clear path for them to all become permanent residents,” says Barbara Jo Caruso, founder of Corporate Immigration Law Firm.

Caruso says this raises a moral issue because the government actively recruits students from the developing world and sometimes families will devote a life’s savings to pay foreign student fees, only to find the door closed once they graduate.