Saul Schwartz

The number of international students from India in Canada has increased rapidly in the last five years. Students from India now comprise 34 percent of Canada’s international students. This article places the remarkable growth of Indian international students within the broader context of Canada’s internationalization of higher education. Drawing from a national survey, qualitative interviews, and secondary data, it examines the changing profile of Indian international students and the major trends and challenges experienced by Indian international students in Canada during COVID-19. The paper identifies a recent trend of “vocationalization” of Indian international students and several associated vulnerabilities due to the increasing commercialization of international education. Our findings also point to the complex intersections of psychosocial, academic, and economic disruptions during the pandemic, exacerbating the precarious position of Indian international students.

Canada does not have a low‐cost bankruptcy option for debtors with low incomes and low assets. In this article, we present empirical evidence of the need for such an option by estimating the number of debtors who might benefit from it. We then review the successful low‐cost bankruptcy options in operation in New Zealand and in the United Kingdom and recommend that Canada adopt a similar system.

Are students with a permanent disability more likely to drop out of post-secondary education than students without a permanent disability? Once they are out of postsecondary education, do their experiences in the labour market differ? Answers to these questions are necessary to evaluate current policies and to develop new policies. This paper addresses these two questions using a unique data set that combines administrative records from the Canada Student Loans Program with survey responses. Our measure of permanent disability is an objective one that requires a physician’s diagnosis. The survey data supply information on the students’ education and labour market status. Simple descriptive statistics suggest that, compared to students without a permanent disability, students with a permanent disability are equally likely to drop out of postsecondary education, but less likely to be in the labour force and more likely to be unemployed. We use propensity score matching to address potential selection into the group of students who documented their disability. The results using propensity score matching are consistent with the descriptive statistics. Our story is one of an underpublicized success—the rising number of students with disabilities in postsecondary institutions and their equal likelihood of graduation—and a persistent problem—the continued disadvantage that people with disabilities, even those with the same educational attainment as people without disabilities, face in the labour market.

Trade adjustment assistance (TAA) is government aid to those affected by trade agreements. We review the history of TAA in Canada and ask whether Canada needs to reintroduce it in response to the recent intensification of trade negotiations. In light of the compensation offered by the federal government in connection with the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), we examine how TAA fits in with the evolution of Canadian federalism in the trade policy area. Based in part on interviews with provincial trade negotiators, we conclude, first, that the compensation is an outcome of Canadian federalism. Second, we argue that while there is no reason to reintroduce a federal TAA program for workers, compensation for provinces is necessary to facilitate their cooperation with the implementation of trade treaty provisions. Third, we suggest that a more transparent rationale for such compensation would be superior to the ad hoc compensation observed in CETA.

When debt becomes unmanageable, two options for a consumer debtor in Canada are: (1) enlisting the services of a bankruptcy trustee, and (2) becoming a client of a not-for-profit credit counselling agency. Each of these options is regulated differently and has public and private dimensions. At first glance, these two options might seem to illustrate the potential of multiple legal orders to better serve the public. In this paper, however, we argue, based on empirical research on the credit counselling industry, that while this pluralism has potential to facilitate debt relief in Canada, it has failed to do so. The lines between public and private options have been blurred to the point where they are difficult to discern, and the consumer debtor is ultimately disadvantaged.

The Self‐Sufficiency Project (SSP) was a Canadian randomized trial in which the program group had 12 months to find full‐time employment in order to qualify for a subsidy that roughly doubled their pre‐tax earnings for the next three years. We find evidence of significant impacts of SSP on non‐employment and employment durations. For the treated group, simulation results show an impact on the employment rate at 52 months after random assignment in the range of 7 to 11 percentage points; this is approximately a 25% increase in the employment rate compared with having no treatment in place.

Dans cet article, nous évaluons l’impact d’une composante importante du Projet d’autosuffisance (PAS), une vaste politique canadienne d’intervention sur le marché du travail. Nous nous concentrons donc sur le PAS-plus, qui offre à d’ex-prestataires de l’aide sociale des services reliés à l’emploi et un intéressant supplément de revenu. Nous avons considéré deux façons d’expliquer les effets positifs supplémentaires du PAS-plus sur le taux d’emploi à plein temps: a) le PAS-plus a incité plus d’individus à occuper un emploi à plein temps; b) l’accès à des services reliés à l’emploi a accru la probabilité que ceux qui étaient admissibles au supplément travaillent à temps plein. Ensuite, grâce à la méthode d’appariement par calcul des propensions, nous avons pu démontrer que l’impact était le résultat des deux facteurs; toutefois, le deuxième ne s’applique qu’aux individus qui n’auraient pas occupé un emploi à temps plein s’ils n’avaient pas pu profiter des mesures incitatives du PAS-plus.

The Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) offered a generous but time-limited earnings supplement to a randomly assigned group of lone parents—who were also long-term social assistance recipients—if they found full-time work and left social assistance. Employment data was collected for this group over a three-year period following the offer, and for a randomly-assigned control group. This article analyzes the characteristics of the first job that SSP participants found after they left social assistance. The occupations and industries of the first job held are analyzed as is SSP’s impact on hourly wages, weekly hours and job stability. The article finds that SSP increased employment in jobs that were no worse (and no better) than the jobs that participants might have taken in the absence of the program.