Whether Indian students were replaceable or not, we will get to see this year I guess. The number just hasn't gone down by 20% fyi, it has gone down by 80% in terms of new students coming to Canada last quarter. This is a massive shock that Marc Miller himself admitted in a recent interview. There's also a concern that lack of students could cause a recession in Canada. Right now a million TRVs are extremely vocal about their negative experiences with Canada which is hard to ignore.What I learned past few months is that fake news travels through social media faster than the truth has a chance. Indian coworker of mine (recent student) was asking me that his family is worried about his safety in Canada. Told him literally has nothing to worry about, most Canadians couldnt give af but Indian coverage of Canada in India seems to be propaganda like. So probably Indians got scared or something cos of media. Anyways, I see most of them trying for Aus and UK only to realize theres no pathway to PR for them. Most can't speak German so they will come back to Canada.
Besides, noticing diploma mills are now diversifying to other countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. Indians students were always replacable
Given that most students are somehow selectively exposed to the worst things about Canada(slumlords, bad employers, etc) and miss out on a lot of good that Canada has to offer, the dip in interest to study in Canada is organic. Had Canadian govt intervened at the right time, this would have never happened.