移民部长6月8日在Seneca College召开发布会，重申加拿大欢迎留学生（尤其是学习法语的留学生）。点名指出中国、印度、菲律宾和越南四个留学生来源大国，并为这四个国家的学生推出了SDS计划。
SDS计划早在2012年就在中国推出，所以这并不是什么新闻，推了又推，或者说又重申了一下欢迎留学生。我们关注到今年中小学和低龄留学生的过签率有显著提高，但大龄还是不容易通过，超过30岁的申请人依然建议通过旅游签转学签赴加留学。
早上好。感谢来到这里参加我的发布会，也感谢圣力嘉学院（Seneca College）的热情接待。
目前有7,000多名国际学生在圣力嘉学院就读，圣力嘉是一个有着不菲的接纳国际留学生历史和传统的学院。
在开始之前，我想要强调，我们所站在的土地原本属于密西沙加人的New Credit和Haudenosaunee部落。
加拿大政府坚定地认为，国际学生在许多方面对我国有利。这就是为什么我们想让加拿大成为寻求优质教育的学生的目的地。
首先，我们知道国际学生为我国带来巨大的经济利益。他们为我们的GDP贡献约128亿美元，并支持超过15.8万个就业机会。事实上他们对加拿大的贡献远远超过了这一点。国际学生为学校，大学以及他们所在的社区做出了重大贡献。他们为我们的课堂带来的多元化视角丰，富了加拿大学生的教育体验。
国际学生还加强加拿大人民与许多其他国家的人民关系，使加拿大作为一个贸易国家能够进入更多的市场，在文化、教育等方面和其他国家加强联系。
举例来说，Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji，他在返回家乡尼日利亚之前在滑铁卢大学学习过。他现在是Flutterwave的成功首席执行官，该支付应用程序正在改变非洲人做生意的方式，使银行和企业更容易在非洲大陆处理付款。该公司于2013年被加拿大创新中心收购。
另一个例子是从委内瑞拉抵达加拿大并在道格拉斯学院学习的Miguel Kudry。 Kudry先生是HelpHub的创始人，这是一个成功的平台，通过视频和即时消息和电话将学生与导师联系起来。HelpHub现在有来自65个国家的导师和1200多所学校的学生，它是一个日益增长的全球平台。2014年，Kudry先生被麦克林杂志评选为加拿大未来领导人之一，2016年被BC Business评为30岁以下的杰出人物前30。他还计划启动新的创业计划，将大众消费者转化为数字货币。
所以在很多方面，国际学生是加拿大人最理想的未来。他们接受了加拿大的高等教育，不少人还有加拿大的工作经验。他们也会说我们的官方语言。所有这些都是新加拿大人成功的秘诀。
出于这些原因，政府希望继续提高效率，降低难度，以促进国际学生前来学习，更重要的是留在加拿大。我们看到越来越多的国际学生从中国，印度，菲律宾和越南申请赴加留学。
为了支持留学人数的增长，并使这些学生更容易申请来加拿大学习，我很高兴今天宣布推出学习直入计划（Student Direct Stream, SDS）。SDS计划将为来自这四个国家的国际学生提供更快处理学生许可申请的选项。当然，为了取得申请SDS的资格，国际学生必须符合其他要求，例如证明他们具有能支持他们顺利留学的财务资源和语言技能。
此外，我们已经在努力将SDS计划扩展到非洲，我们正计划在肯尼亚和塞内加尔推行。向塞内加尔提出SDS计划更符合我们政府承诺的增加赴加拿大学习法语的学生人数。
加拿大政府认为，国际学生对我们经济的成功和发展以及我们国家的未来繁荣至关重要。
再次感谢圣力嘉学院接待我们，也感谢大家今天的参与。现在我可以回答问题。
At a News Conference to announce the Student Direct Stream Program
Markham, Ontario
June 8, 2018As delivered
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us at Seneca College today, who have been very kind to us, to host us here this morning.
With more than 7,000 international students currently studying here, Seneca College has a proud history of welcoming international students from around the world.
Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of New Credit and the Haudenosaunee.
The Government of Canada firmly believes that international students benefit our country in many ways. That is why we want to make Canada a destination of choice for those seeking a quality education.
First, we know that international students bring tremendous economic benefits to our country. They contribute approximately $12.8 billion to our Gross Domestic Product and support more than 158,000 jobs. But their contributions to Canada go well beyond that. International students make significant contributions to the schools and the colleges and the universities and the communities in which they reside in. The diverse perspectives that they bring to our classrooms enrich the educational experiences of Canadian students.
International students also strengthen Canada’s people to people ties with many other countries that allow Canada, as a trading nation, to access more markets and build relationships, cultural, educational and otherwise with many other countries and societies.
Take for, example, Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji, who studied at the University of Waterloo before returning to his home country in Nigeria. He’s now the successful CEO of Flutterwave, which is a payment application that is changing the way Africans do business, making it easier for banks and businesses to process payments all across the African continent. The company was acquired by the Canadian Innovation Centre in 2013.
Another example is Miguel Kudry, who arrived in Canada from Venezuela and studied at Douglas College. Mr. Kudry is the founder of HelpHub, a successful platform that connects students with tutors over video and instant messaging and phone calls. HelpHub now has tutors from 65 countries and students from over 1,200 schools, making it a growing global platform. In 2014, Mr. Kudry was named as one of Canada’s future leaders by Maclean’s magazine and Top 30 under 30 by BC Business in 2016. He also has plans underway to launch a new start-up, which will bring mass consumers into digital currencies.
So in many ways, international students are the ideal future Canadians. That’s because they have Canadian postsecondary education and, in many cases, Canadian work experience. They also speak one, if not both, of our official languages. All of which is a recipe for a newcomer’s success in Canada.
For these reasons, the government wants to continue to make it more efficient and easier, and facilitate international students to come and study and, more importantly, to stay in Canada. And increasingly, we’re seeing more international students applying from China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam.
To support this growth in applications and to make it easier for these students to apply to come to Canada to study, I’m very pleased to announce today the Student Direct Stream. The Student Direct Stream will provide international students from these four countries with the option to receive faster processing of their student permit application. In order to qualify, international students must meet additional requirements such as demonstrating that they have the financial resources and language skills to succeed academically in Canada.
Also, we’re already working on expanding the Student Direct Stream to Africa and we’re looking at options in Kenya and Senegal. The proposed expansion to Senegal is more in line with our government’s commitment to increase the number of Francophone students coming to study in Canada.
The Government of Canada believes that international students are essential to the success and the growth of our economy and the future prosperity of our country.
And I thank very much Seneca College for hosting us, and I thank all of you for joining us here today. I’ll be pleased to take any of your questions.
Thank you.
