Representing the Problem of (Un)Ethical Practices in Canada’s Post-Pandemic International Student Policy Landscape

Oct 15, 2026

This study investigates how Canada’s policy landscape toward international students has shifted since the pandemic. It maps 97 federal, Ontario, and Quebec announcements from January 2022 to March 2024, using the “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” approach. The analysis examines how increasing attention to (un)ethical practices shapes policy actors’ construction of international students’ role, highlighting competing representations of the “problem,” and a call-and-response dynamic across announcements. Ethical-practice framing links students to national issues such as housing shortages and labour-market needs, distributing responsibility among unscrupulous actors and students themselves.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

International student policy expansion and pandemic rebound

Risks of over-reliance and rising anti-IS sentiment

Shifting portrayals of international students after the pandemic

Representing the Problem of (Un)Ethical Practices in Canada’s Post-Pandemic International Student Policy Landscape Emma Harden-Wolfson McGill University Shannon Hutcheson McGill University Yvonne Zhang McGill University Abstract This study investigates how the Canadian policy landscape toward international students has changed since the pandemic. It uses a policy mapping of 97 announcements made between January of 2022 and March of 2024 by the federal government, the governments of Ontario and Quebec, and three organizations with expertise in international or higher education. Using the “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?”(WPR) approach, the article analyses the increasing attention being paid to (un)ethical practices as a lens through which policy bodies are constructing the role of international students in Canada. This highlights the differing representations of the “problem” of ethical practices, as well as the call-and-response nature of announcements between policy actors. The focus on ethical practices has created links between international students and national issues such as housing shortages and labour market needs, assigning responsibility to unscrupulous actors but also to students themselves for creating these challenges. Keywords: international students, international education policy, Canada, ethical practices, What’s the Problem Represented to Be approach, Canadian higher education Résumé La présente étude porte sur les changements intervenus au Canada, depuis la pandémie, auchapitre des politiques concernant les étudiants étrangers. Elle repose sur une cartographie des politiques réalisée à partir de 97 annonces faites entre janvier 2022 et mars 2024 par les gouvernements fédéral, ontarien et québécois ainsi que par trois organisations spécialisées en enseignement international ou supérieur. Au moyen de l’approche par questionnementWPR (What’s the Problem Represented to Be), l’article s’intéresse à l’attention croissante portéeaux pratiques éthiques (ou contraires à l’éthique) comme prisme à travers lequel les instances responsables des politiques construisent le rôle des étudiants étrangers au Canada. L’article met ainsi en lumière les diverses représentations du « problème » des pratiques éthiques ainsi que la dynamique action-réaction inhérente aux annonces des décideurs. L’accent mis sur les pratiques éthiques a eu pour effet d’établir des liens entre l’effectif étudiant étranger et des problèmes sévissant au pays, sur la scène du logement ou du marché du travail, par exemple, et d’en imputer la responsabilité à des acteurs sans scrupules, mais également aux étudianteset étudiants eux-mêmes. Mots-clés : étudiants étrangers; politique d’éducation internationale; Canada; pratiques éthiques; approche « What’s the Problem Represented to Be »; enseignement supérieur au Canada Canadian Journal of Higher Education | Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur 55:2 (2025) INTRODUCTION Canada has long positioned itself as a major player in the recruitment of international students (IS), deploying federal and provincial policies on immigration and education to attract and retain increasing numbers of IS (Sá & Sabzalieva, 2018; Sabzalieva et al. , 2022) . After rebounding from the peak pandemic years, the IS population reached a record high of over one million in 2023 (“Canada hosted,” 2024) and, in 2022–2023, IS made up 21.2% of the entire student body in Canadian post-secondary education programs (Statistics Canada, 2024) . International education has become woven into Canada’s policy fabric, institutionalized by the publication of government international education strategies and the involvement of an ever-widening range of government and education policy actors (El Masri & Trilokekar, 2023; Tamtik et al. , 2020) . However, this policy framework appeared to unravel in January of 2024, when the federal government announced that, for the first time ever, caps would be placed on the numb

FAQs

What is the main focus of the study?

The study examines how Canada’s policies toward international students have changed since the pandemic, with particular attention to (un)ethical practices as a lens shaping policy representations.

How is the policy landscape analyzed?

It uses a policy mapping of 97 announcements made between January 2022 and March 2024 and applies the “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR) approach to analyze representations and policy-actor interactions.

What kinds of issues become linked to international students in these announcements?

The study shows that focusing on ethical practices links international students to national issues such as housing shortages and labour market needs, assigning responsibility both to unscrupulous actors and to students themselves.

Oct 15, 2026

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