Back before Katrina Chen was the MLA for Burnaby-Lougheed and minister of state for child care, she was a newly graduated international student on what’s called a post-graduate work permit.
It’s a temporary work permit that gives international students time to get Canadian work experience to qualify for permanent residency.
“I would have dreams that my work permit expired,” Chen told the NOW. “I’m not joking; I would wake up in the middle of the night and check to make sure my work permit was not expired. It was bad.”
Chen, who is originally from Taiwan, eventually got her permanent residency and then Canadian citizenship, and she has put her SFU political science and history degree to work in local and provincial politics for more than a decade.
But she hasn’t forgotten how stressful that time was, so she is concerned for those going through the same thing today – during a worldwide pandemic.
International students currently in Canada on post-graduate work permits have lost jobs because of COVID-19, and some are in a race against time to get work experience in the middle of a pandemic-related economic downturn before their permits expire.
A recent 3,033-signature e-petition to Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco Mendicino says the federal government’s COVID-19 response to date “has not considered the negative impact on international students’ long-term planning and investment, nor the negative impact on the Canadian economy, should graduates not be given the opportunity to prove their value during their (post-graduate work permit) period due to COVID-19 related work shortages and layoffs.”
One of the people who signed that petition is North Burnaby resident Maria Landaeta Yoris.
Landaeta Yoris first came to Canada from Venezuela for eight months in 2013 to learn English but said she fell in love with the country.
She came back in 2014, starting with an English program at Capilano University and then graduating with distinction from the school’s two-year film program.
Still short five months of work experience to be eligible for permanent residency, she lost her job with a film industry casting company in March because of the pandemic.
Her three-year post-graduate work permit expires in August.
“Of course you have anxiety, a lot,” she said.
“My work permit is not extendable, according to the current regulations,” she said, “and due to the pandemic’s damage to the job market, I will be losing about four to five months out of that ‘not extendable’ work permit, a much needed time in my case.”
She does not want to return to her native Venezuela – a country wracked by political and economic instability and now COVID-19 – and she doesn’t want to lose the six-year investment she has made in Canada.
The petition she signed notes that the education export industry contributes an estimated $21.6 billion annually to Canada’s GDP and has created 170,000 jobs for Canadians.
“Incorporating international students’ skills into the Canadian labour force is of critical importance to the Canadian economy,” states the petition.
Landaeta Yoris has written letters to federal politicians, including Burnaby North-Seymour MP Terry Beech and NDP Leader and Burnaby South MP Jagmeet Singh, outlining her plight.
So far she hasn’t heard back except for confirmation emails saying her letters were received.
Chen said it would be a shame if international students, like Landaeta Yoris, had to give up on their dreams of permanent residency and potential citizenship because they ran out of time on account of the pandemic.
“That would be unfortunate because we have trained so many skilled workers in Canada,” Chen said. “They’re Canadian-trained, like me. I went to high school here; I finished my four-year degree here. I have the skills; I have the language to be able to settle. We have lots of new immigrants contributing to our community. I think we would probably prefer and want those who are educated in Canada.”
Speaking personally, she said she hopes the federal government will look at extending post-graduate work permits.
“I hope – because of COVID so many people have lost their jobs, including foreign workers, international students – that the federal government can look at it and see what are the flexibilities around those situations.”
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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