International student overflow a key focus at Quinte Immigration AGM

Executive director Orlando Ferro is responsible for managing the daily operations of Quinte Immigration Service’s Belleville office where he assists new Canadians in finding employment. Photo by Max Reid, QNet News

By Max Reid

BELLEVILLE – The number of anxious international students looking to work in Canada continues to rise, but Quinte Immigration Services says it is still looking for a solution for how to manage the rush come graduation season.

The local non-profit held its annual general meeting at the Belleville Public Library Wednesday evening where “capacity challenges” were among the primary goals set out by board of directors president Paul Osborne.

Osborne said that the organization has reached a record number of clients seeking services, over two hundred of which are estimated to be international students, according to the annual report.

Quinte Immigration offers newcomers to Canada services such as translation accessibility, language classes and assistance in filling out documents. However, its funding is more specifically allocated to assisting skilled workers as opposed to international students.

They still strive to aid international students in settling in Canada because, according to executive director Orlando Ferro, “the goal, for most of them (international students), is to remain in Canada and find a job here.”

Last May, Quinte Immigration experienced a significant overflow of work permit applications piling up on the desks of the office’s only two settlement workers due to the influx of graduating international students.

After asking Ferro about the issue again at the meeting, he said that a language barrier was largely to blame for delays in the application process.

Ferro said that when it came to substantiating their English-language skills before coming to Canada, many international students were “struggling”.

He suggested that work is to be done on the college’s end to ensure that students are properly equipped with the necessary language skills to complete these sorts of applications, especially in the face of strict deadlines which can easily put an international student out of work.