International Students are essential for Canada but is Canada providing them enough?

International students are the one of the top GDP sources in Canada. International students contributed $16.2 Billion in 2017 and $19.7 billion in 2018 to Canada’s GDP. In 2018, Ontario holds the maximum internationals students who accounted for 55.3 per cent of province’s GDP followed by British Columbia with 19.8 per cent and Quebec with 11.9 per cent. An impressive rise of 16.3 per cent, observed in terms of international students in 2018. India is the largest source country for international students to Canada and Ontario has been the first choice for every international student due to high number of educational institutes and wide range of courses available. International students usually pay four to five times more than their domestic counterparts and during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Dalhousie University, one student asked Trudeau if the government is doing something, and he replied.

“What we are focused on is making sure that education is as affordable as possible for all Canadians,” said Trudeau.

“That’s why of all the international students who could potentially come to Canada […] we allow ourselves to say ‘they’re gonna have to be the ones who can pay for it.’

Akarshnoor Singh, President of the Seneca Student Federation, relate himself being an international student, with the problems like off-campus housing in affordable price range, work and making connections. Students like Jobanpreet Singh find it hard to focus on studies. He is student at Georgian College and works full-time and even did multiple jobs during the break. He is from middle class family dependent on Agriculture, so he cannot ask them for help. Instead, he helps his parents whenever they ask. He came here for a better future, but higher tuition costs and inflation made him lose sight of his goals. “I always dreamed of being a specialist in Cardiology but now I just want to finish this and will think about that later. I cannot afford this much international tuition costs” said Jobanpreet.

Sometimes international students become victims of fraudulent activities. In summer of 2022, Alpha International Academy refuse to enroll hundreds of international students into the next semester. Which put them in danger of qualifying for Post Graduation Work Permit. Hundreds of students were gathered to protest for their right and CBC covered their story very well. Dilpreet Kaur was one of the victims, whose parents put everything at stake just to send their daughter abroad for her studies. Before coming here, it was kind of, in my mind, 'Canada is so beautiful. I'm going to come here, just earn well, live a life, have fun at the weekends,' like we saw in the movies.”

"When I came here it was different, it was completely different” said Dilpreet.

Canada is the choice of these thousands of students from different countries. The safe environment of this country was also the reason, but recently the rise in violence is questioning the peace of this country. Research suggests that international students do experience racism. This even continues after their graduation too. Internationals students graduated in Canada typically offered low skilled jobs. After graduation, international students earn less than their Canadian counterparts. It also revealed that employers tend to 40 per cent more likely interview the candidates with the English sounding names.