Canadian University Application Centre managing director Mel Broitman said this as part of his tour to various cities in the country to select Indian students to study in his country. He is accompanied by the representatives of five universities of Canada,

He said Canada needs immigrants at the rate of three lakh per year to keep the population growth rate constant and therefore there is a huge demand for talented students from India.

“Canada is very actively promoting immigration so that it can add to its population. It has a population of 32 million people and there is a need to increase the population. Due to negative population growth rate, Indian students make the best immigrants,” he stated, while answering a question on why Canada is following the immigration programme so actively. “About 40 per cent of the Indian students studying in these five universities are from Punjab and that speaks volumes of how Punjabis are making inroads into Canadian universities,” added Broitman.

He further said, “We have already sent about 1,500 students to pursue their studies in the Canadian universities since 1997. And about 2,500 students from India go to Canada every year, which may be lesser than those going to Australia or some other countries but what is noteworthy is that Canada wants talented people who can be part of the society later on. Another point is that the study expenses are much less in Canada while the living standard is high.”

“All Indian students automatically receive a work permit in Canada once they graduate since they are highly respected for speaking good English and also for being talented,” said Justin Kohlman from the University of Victoria. Krista Pearson from University of Algoma said she had been to various parts of India on many occasions but it was Punjab where she found very good response. “And most of the students from India enroll with us for undergraduate courses,” she explained while talking about Algoma University which is also famous for courses in gaming.