CREDIT: GRACIA ESPINOSA
International students will once again have to settle for working 20 hours a week or less while they complete their studies in Canada.

On Oct. 7, 2022, Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, announced a temporary lifting of the limit of 20 hours per week for off-campus work for international students in Canada. The pilot project, which benefited 500,000 students, will end on Dec. 31.

“We know why students try to work more hours. Things are expensive. But it’s always been the rule about the 20 hours per week. And it hurts my heart when people come here thinking they can work more than 20 hours per week because they didn’t understand it was a temporary lifting,” said Rebecca Summerfield, a career services consultant at Fanshawe College.

However, Summerfield believes that when the government did the pilot project, it confused everyone because it wasn’t clear who could participate.


“I can’t say for sure that anyone who started at Fanshawe College, probably in the summer semester of this year, is not part of that pilot project. But everyone who started in September this semester is not part of the pilot, and no one else will continue in this project because it’s ending,” Summerfield said.

JaiRaj Bhambota, a student of Fanshawe College’s television and digital news program who started work in August, was one of the international students affected by the termination of the pilot project.

“I am managing my assignments and my work as well. And I know I can handle more, but the expenses are too much. It’s so expensive. So, to maintain that balance, we need to work more, for sure.”

Bhambota acknowledged that he works less than 20 hours because of this limit.

“It’s like, 18 hours a week, sometimes like 17 hours a week. So, in that scenario, calculations are all messed up, and we are not earning that much that we expected to earn.”

Summerfield explained that the limit on work hours across Canada was to ensure that immigrants coming to study could focus on their programs. In addition, Summerfield said that she and other co-workers had seen in the past a negative effect on many of these students working more than 20 hours a week and how difficult it is to keep up with their studies.

The President of Fanshawe Student Union (FSU), Stephin Sathya, stated that parliamentarians believe international students’ studies will be affected if they work 40 hours per week. However, according to Abacus Data, in 2023, more than two-thirds of international students who worked 40 hours or more per week achieved an academic average of 85 per cent or more.

“I feel like there should be freedom to work more hours because it will be easier for employers to hire people and students to work,” Sathya said. “You can choose a work environment that is suitable for you, and you can balance your studies.”