Worked in customs and immigration for over a decade so I’ve had my fair share of dealing with hundreds if not thousands of these students over the years. As a Canadian born Indian myself, I’ll speak specifically about the students we’ve been getting from India.
In my experience dealing with them, a huge amount of them actually have no real interest at all in studies but rather come here under the guise of education just to try and get their PR and then bring over the rest of their families. Most possessed elementary level English literacy yet were here to study at the university/college level. Let’s not forget that it isn’t all that difficult to pay and get fake docs in India so safe to assume a lot of these students pay to get their ILETS and other school related docs.
We’re getting most of these students from one part of India. These are “students” that wouldn’t even be able to secure admission at proper universities in bigger Indian cities. The entire diploma mill loophole is a huge problem here. A lot of these students have no real desire to integrate, assimilate or adapt to Canadian culture. They also have no real career ambitions or goals. They come here with the sole purpose of getting their PR and that’s it. They come to places like Surrey, BC and Brampton, ON where there is already huge pre-existing population of South Asians. This makes them think they don’t have no change their ways at all or improve their English since majority of the people speak Punjabi.
This isn’t to say that all of them coming in are bad. I’ve dealt with some pretty good students too but the reality is at this point, the bad far outweigh the good. The bad ones also make themselves extremely visible with their garbage behaviour and a complete lack of social etiquette and respect. Even back in 2017 I knew this would be a disaster sooner or later. Just the sheer amount of them coming in on a daily basis really boggled my mind.
I’m sorry to say but this completely reckless approach will simply not end well. A lot of these students are also sold the fake Canadian dream but arrive here and have a real rude awakening. I’m personally friends with quite a few of them so I’ve been told the reality of this situation first hand by them. Most will end up working dead end jobs in the service and retail industry since most are doing bogus two year diplomas in things like hospitality and tourism. Also a big number of them actively getting involved in gangs/drugs and I was also told by a few friends how some of these international student girls were getting involved in prostitution… some out of sheer financial desperation and others willingly. I can go on and on into more details and specifics but I’ll leave at this for now.
I apologize for the lengthy comment and some of you may have seen similar comments like this from me on other similar posts. I think it’s really crucial to understand the importance of this issue. If this continues, places will literally become next to unliveable. There needs to be proper checks and balances in place because a lot of these students shouldn’t have been granted student visas to even begin with. The amount of loopholes in our immigration system that are readily available for people to exploit is just absolutely ridiculous. I have no hope that this government will do anything meaningful at all to fix this issue or put in preventative measures going forward.
Edit: Just wanted to clarify something further and add a little more context. I’m aware some people are afraid or hesitant to speak up about this issue as they think they’ll be called racists. There is absolutely nothing racist about voicing your concerns about issues that are directly impacting the quality of day to day life for you as Canadians. Also, I want to stress the point that not all of these students are bad. There are genuinely good people who are victims of their circumstances. The good ones tend to get clumped together with all the bad. People will assume I’m generalizing based on my own experiences. I’m basing my opinions obviously on my own experiences but also of those that I personally know (friends, family etc). And some of these friends are international students themselves who had voiced their opinions and concerns to me about their fellow peers. Lastly, I’m not anti-immigration but what I am against is this type of reckless and forced immigration where the focus seems to be solely on quantity while overlooking quality. A complete overlook of infrastructural needs, healthcare and overall cost of living. How many people could we possibly need to fill lower end minimum wage service industry and retail jobs? We need quality people that will fill experienced positions. Doctor shortages, nurse shortage, teacher shortage and the list goes on. I’m just very concerned at this point at the direction this country seems to be headed towards.