B.C's international students weigh in on Canada's decision to cap new international student permits

Canada is capping the number of international students it's allowing to study here over the next 2 years politicians say students aren't being set up to succeed in some cases they say they're being taken advantage of by Schools running into housing challenges unaffordability challenges and having a tough time finding a job these are stories we wanted to hear firsthand so we were invited to an international student union to chat with recent arrivals about their experiences when did you first decide to to come to Canada so I decided to come to Canada in 2018 uh November so that's when my semester actually started MH in the University of frza Valley what was the transition like was it challenging at times yeah 100% I did get a culture shock and initially um I was not adapting to the weather the timeline um even like the language I was speaking uh so for me it was a culture shock at far I uh went to Alexander College it's in Vancouver how did you sort of uh come to choose Alexander college so I was in such a young age I just uh did my grade 12 which is scholing back in India and then I decided to move to Canada for a better life so yeah that time it was like a lot of international students were coming and then the Alexander College was the one who provided me with the offer letter when you first came to Canada what was the uh what was the transition like when I just came and then I didn't even know anyone here and then it was only in my college that um I got to know a few of my friends who who were also new and then we were in first semester we just decided randomly to okay let's let's like have a basement together and that was the hardest part living with unknown people who you don't even know and then you're sharing everything you're sharing your personal room and space cuz you can't afford much money to have a private room do you have a memory about a hard like a really hard moment for you when you were transitioning over here so I don't know what to expect in Canada I have no contact when when I arrive I don't have contact to a school I have to Google go the school and my phone was not working properly because my phone came from the Philippines being on a bus there's like multiple boss numbers so I got lost through that I was able to find my host family I thought it was close by to the school but my school was in downtown that house is in Marine Drive so it was a quite far and when I found out um that the school kind of like don't have support on how to get MSP they said just figure it out there's Google there's no support with how to get my sin number and stuff like that where which bank is beneficial for international students I found those things out along the way and um the biggest challenge was finding a job I was struggling to find a job then I met one of my old friend who was already settled here so he helped me in finding job and then I also stayed with him uh him in his basement for 2 years so if I couldn't have that friend here so my struggle going to increase more so that's why we started this organization that every student should have someone here who can take care of them being a Founder every month I received a lot of complaints by student that they are not getting work and even now our hands are standing too because we cannot accommodate such number of students we are trying our best but still many students are sitting home getting no work because of rising unemployment plus they are also exploited by the private colleges they are intentionally failing them to get more money and that making student more more depressed so that's why I think they if they could stay at their back home that would that would be a much better place for them right now the BC government says there's about 175,000 International students here more than half of them are enrolled in private colleges or universities the student Cap won't apply to existing students and the province still isn't sure just how many permits it will be able to approve this year often times International students will arrive in Canada only to discover they've been scammed or exploited so we're going to speak with an immigration consultant who's fighting on their behalf you mentioned these schools can pop up anywhere can they pop up in this area right here 100% And you know what there may be a few in this area I know in this area there's so many private colleges that are the size of my office when you first heard news of that cap what went through your mind honestly I don't know how many people will agree with this with me but I was a little bit of relief because things are not in control right now in order to get Canada under control the students are already here in order to take care of them properly in order to make sure everything nothing will get streamlined 100% unfortunately that's going to take years and years and years for that just to clean up the mess sometimes you need to take a step back now I think in the last week in my email I have about 8 to 10 colleges that are now selling private colleges that want to sell their practice now because they were dependent on these fees coming in and they really didn't have anything to offer there's also been a lot of political opposition to the international student Camp the federal NDP says it unfairly blames International students for contributing to Canada's housing crisis we're going to speak with an MP who says the system has gone unchecked for too long but penalizing students isn't the answer in terms of international students and this sort of system of exploitation how has it been able to kind of operate unchecked for so long well that's a good question right I mean this is something that's H happened for a long time whether it be liberal governments or uh conservative governments successively this has happened uh and and and and and it's gone unchecked uh and now is sort of reached this sort of heightened level uh to the point that it has the government needs to do a much better job to make sure that accountability is there and to ensure that protection is there for these International students I've always said those students who are victims of fraud they should not be penalized uh and they've already suffered enough what message do you think this cap has maybe sent or said about International students as it relates to housing it is so easy for people just to point fingers and say is the Newcomer's fault uh and so the uh reaction would be to cap uh put a cap on uh and to disallow for people to come to Canada from my perspective uh newcomers are not to blame Canada wants to attract International students we because we want new talents young talents you know to come to Canada to get educated we hope that they would actually stay in Canada to support our economy to support our Industries what we need is a partnership collaboration between the federal government provincial and territorial governments and institutions they need to actually ensure that student housing is being provided for both for international students as well as domestic students like it or not changes are coming since Ottawa announced the cap BC introduced its own Suite of measures it says will strengthen International Education that includes more oversight of private schools and higher language requirements to study here will that improve the educational experience overall we'll find out over the next 2 years years

Channel: CBC Vancouver

Views: 86,794

Keywords: live news, cbc, cbcnews, vancouver news, news, BC news, vancouver, british columbia

Id: oTdCMMSbwRg

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 01 2024