A study commissioned by the Department for Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to assess the success rate of study visa applicants in its consular offices across ten countries in its report made public recently identified bias and discrimination as primary reasons why Nigerians and Africans achieve only 12 per cent success rate in their visa applications. In this emailed interview with Joseph Ushigiale, Gideon Christian, a Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Law at the University of Calgary, explains the stereotyping and why Canada’s consular officers call Africans ‘Dirty 30’

Tell us about your current efforts alongside other Nigerian professionals to get fair treatment for Nigerians and Africans in the Canada study visa application process?
I am an assistant professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law and the president of the African Scholars Initiative (ASI-Canada) – a registered Canadian charity that seeks to mentor bright future scholars of African descent who intend to pursue graduate education in Canada. We basically seek to identify bright graduates from Africa and then assist them to come to Canada to pursue further education. We assist them through the admission process and the study visa process. We have had tremendous success in the admission processing stages.

But it is sad then, after successfully going through the admission process, most of these bright graduates cannot make it to Canada because of visa refusals at Canadian visa offices in Africa. Since 2017, I have been tracking the Canadian study visa approval rate for applicants from Africa. The rate has consistently been plunging. The situation became very alarming when I received the statistics for the Canada study visa approval rate for Nigeria, which showed a dismal approval rate of 11.8 per cent. Nigeria is among the top 10 source countries for the Canadian study visa. At this point in time, other top 10 countries like Korea and Japan had 95 per cent and 97 per cent approval rate. Shortly after I got hold of this data, a report that was commissioned by the Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada (the Canadian government department responsible for immigration) was released. The report specifically cited Nigeria as a country that was adversely impacted by racism in the processing of immigration applications by this government department.

With the data and the report in hand, I realised that I had the evidence to act. I quickly coordinated some group of Nigerian professors and graduate students in Canada. We wrote a letter to the Canadian immigration minister drawing his attention to the report and the data and requesting that steps be taken to address the unfair treatment of Canadian study visa applicants from Nigeria. We got a cursory and unsatisfactory response from the Canadian immigration minister. So, in my capacity as president of the African Scholars Initiative (ASI-Canada), I wrote a letter to the Canadian House of Commons Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, drawing their attention to the report and requesting a hearing to address the issues raised in the report. This culminated in a hearing by the committee in which I was invited as one of the witnesses to appear before the parliamentary committee.

What must have informed the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants to commission this study on declining visa approval rates?
The Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants is an umbrella body of registered immigration consultants in Canada. Nigeria is the number three source country for the Canadian study visa. So, these Canadian immigration consultants deal with a large Nigerian client-base. The consultants became alarmed that most of the applications they filed for their Nigerian clients came back refused. So, the body had to commission a study. I believe they were reasonably concerned by the very poor study visa outcome from the Canadian visa offices responsible for processing study visa for Nigerian applicants, as compared to the outcome from other visa offices.

You can imagine that Nigeria’s success rate when it comes to study visa approval is just 12 per cent, while China, Japan, Vietnam score above 50 per cent. Did they mention the criteria used?
To be clear, Japan actually had 97 per cent. That is close to 100 per cent success rate. The reason why Nigeria had such a dismal rate is evident in the IRCC report – systemic bias and discrimination. The report noted that the visa officers stereotype Nigerians as particularly corrupt and untrustworthy and refer to African countries as ‘the dirty 30’.

Apart from perceived bias and perhaps racism, could it be that they are using Nigerians for revenue generation from payments gained from visa processing even when your visa application does not succeed?
I think the system is more designed to keep Nigerians away. Nigerians are known for their resiliency; the more you try to keep them away, the more they continue to try hoping that things will change. That vicious cycle of refusal and reapplication results in some form of financial loss to one party and financial benefit to another.

Another contentious issue is the insistence that Nigerians should compulsorily pass the IELTS though they’re from a commonwealth and English-speaking country?
We did raise this issue in our letter to the Canadian immigration minister. This is very disturbing because Nigeria is an English-speaking country, and the language of instruction in its educational system is English. It is even more alarming because Canadian universities waive English language proficiency examinations for Nigerian admission applicants. So, if the Canadian schools waive it, you wonder why the visa office would demand it. This is an unjustifiable visa application requirement that has no rational objective. It only enriches third-party organisations like the British Council and IDP IELTS Australia while impoverishing the Canadian study visa applicants. Worse yet, the IELTS exam expires after two years – as if your English proficiency has a two-year life span.

What’s your overriding objective in this struggle?
The overriding objective is to ensure that Africans (including Nigerians) are treated fairly and equitably by the Canadian immigration officers, especially the Canadian visa officers in Africa. I find myself in a difficult position where I have to champion this struggle. This is a task that should be best undertaken by the various foreign ministries of African countries and their high commissions or embassies in Canada. But since they are not doing that, someone has to do it. If that person has to be me, so it be. Also, I have a sort of personal attachment to this struggle. I came to Canada as an international student. On completing my LL.M and PhD, I was called to the Bar here. I spent six years working as a lawyer for the Canadian government at the Department of Justice before leaving some three years ago to take up a position as a professor of Artificial Intelligence and Law at the University of Calgary. What I am trying to say is that this systemic bias and discrimination by these Canadian visa officers in Africa do not really represent Canada. Canada is a great country, a land of opportunities that is welcoming to immigrants. So, the objective of this struggle is to offer bright future scholars in Africa the same opportunity this country offered me many years ago.

Why do you think Nigerians and Africans are specifically targeted?
Because we are easy targets. Africa lacks the kind of responsible government that is willing to stand up for their citizens when they are subjects of ill or biased treatment by foreign governments or their agents. You also have a government that thinks (and wrongly) that it is not in their national interest that their youths should be leaving their home country to travel and reside abroad.

What’s the response you’ve received so far? Is there any indication of light at the end of the tunnel?
Getting the Canadian House of Commons Committee to conduct a hearing on this matter is a huge success. I seized the opportunity of my appearance before the committee to make a strong case for Nigeria and Africa. We are hoping the committee will come up with a strong recommendation to address these issues. But whatever the outcome, the African Scholars Initiative will continue to champion the cause of bright future scholars of African descent in their quest to obtain a quality education from Canadian academic institutions.