“The Government had Made me Ineligible”: Punjabi International Students’ Post-Graduation Trajectories in a Time of Policy Turmoil

In recent years, Canada’s international education system has undergone substantial restructuring, significantly altering pathways from post-secondary education to employment and permanent residency. This paper examines the early post-graduation trajectories of Punjabi international students in British Columbia during a period of rapid policy change. While existing work on Punjabi international students has documented recruitment pathways and in-program experiences, less attention has been paid to what happens at the point of exit, particularly under conditions of rapid policy changes. Drawing on mixed methods data, including a survey of 212 students and 14 in-depth interviews across four public post-secondary institutions, we analyze how students navigate shifting eligibility requirements and labour market expectations at the point of exit from post-secondary education. Using the lenses of governmentality and biopower, we conceptualize the post-graduation transition as a governed site where students are continually sorted through changing administrative criteria and where responsibility for managing volatility is displaced onto individuals. The findings reveal that students’ post-graduate decisions are influenced more by changing immigration and eligibility rules than by job prospects, because these policies often reclassify their work/credentials as (in)eligible. By centering post-graduation transition as a critical yet underexamined site of governance in the education–migration system, this study contributes to scholarship on international education and migration and underscores the need for more stable and just policy frameworks that better align international education, labour market outcomes, and immigration objectives.