« Canadian Immigration [le service canadien de l’immigration] acknowledges that racism exists both in Canada and within his own organization. » In a document quietly released to the Department of Immigration’s website in September, which has not been the subject of further public communication, Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said: “agrees that more can be done to address racial prejudice and discrimination within the organization and its policies”. He admits it would have been “inadvertently” higher study permit rejection rates among students from French-speaking African countries compared to applications from other international students. A “Discriminatory Practice”denounced by the Canadian Association of African Studies in 2019.

In Québec, the country’s only French-speaking province, the situation is most alarming and the chances of obtaining the precious sesame are slimmest. Since a candidate, once admitted by a university and accepted by Quebec authorities, two essential requirements, continues to depend on Canada’s Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Service to obtain their study permit. And it is at the level of this sovereign federal service that the machinery begins.

At the beginning of the 2021 school year – the figures for 2022 are not yet fully available – the rate of denied residence permits for students from Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Senegal or Cameroon was almost 80% or sometimes significantly higher, for example when inquiries were accepted almost automatically by French students. unequal treatment which spares English speakers : McGill University in Montreal, which teaches its courses in English and mainly accepts students from India, China or Vietnam, only saw 9% of educational requests rejected.

“No explanation”

At the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, a medium-sized city on the north bank of the Saint Lawrence River midway between Montreal and Quebec, nearly a third of the 2,320 international students in attendance (out of 15,000 in total) come from here. from French-speaking African countries with which the institution has been cooperatively linked for many years. However, in 2021, the rejection rate of student permit applications for these students reached 79%. The director of international relations at the university, Sylvain Benoit, deplores the situation: “We have no explanation from the federal agency handling the requests. »

You still have 70.24% of this article to read. The following is for subscribers only.