Where are the 20,000 Indian students who disappeared after arriving in Canada?
A recent report revealed that nearly 20,000 Indian students did not join colleges after arriving in Canada and that the govt has no record of where these students are.
A report by TOI suggested that most have now taken up odd jobs to support their stay. Some students who genuinely wished to study but were unable to secure admission to well-known universities, accepted offers from lesser-known colleges. Upon arrival, they discovered the institution was either fake or lacked adequate capacity.
Believing he had secured admission to a reputed college in Brampton, a 24-year-old student from Panchkula, Haryana landed in Canada only to find that the address listed on his admission letter was of a small office with no classrooms. "They told me classes were full and asked me to wait," he said. "Weeks passed, and I realised the college was a sham. Fortunately, I only paid 4.2 lakh of the total 12 lakh "tuition" fee for the year."
The student’s agent, with whom he only communicated via phone calls in Haryana, assured him he could manage the remaining fees through part-time work without taking an additional loan. As a backup, he started working at a local gas station to support himself.
While some students were duped by fraudulent colleges, others deliberately exploited the student visa system to gain entry into Canada for work. Unlike countries such as the US and Australia, Canada’s policy of not requiring international students to pay tuition fees upfront makes the system more susceptible to abuse.
27-year-old from Valsad, Gujarat, admitted to enrolling in a community college with a fee of 7.5 lakh for two years — lower than the cost of a master's degree in Canada, which averages three times as much. "Many people from my region have done this, and I followed suit. I know it's illegal, but this was my only way in. Besides, even those who joined good colleges are doing the same jobs as me. They have loans of 25 lakh or more," he said. Currently, he works two jobs — one at a restaurant and a ..
The students that TOI found out about were mostly from Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, and some from Telangana and Maharashtra. Most shared the same stories. A 26-year-old from Khammam, Telangana, took admission in a college in Surrey but never attended classes. Instead, he now works full-time at a mobile shop for a cash salary of seven dollars per hour. Similarly, a 25-year-old from Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, works as a delivery agent in Toronto.
The student association also shared that some students are using Canada as a gateway to illegally cross into the United States. However, Henry Lotin, a former federal economist and expert on immigration, stated in the report that most of the missing Indian students did not cross the border but were still in Canada, working and seeking permanent residency. "There was a record increase in international students claiming asylum in Canada last year. Broadly, this indicates that at least 10% student visa holders are unaccounted for. For the first time, we have definitive data, but there are still questions about where all student visa holders are," he said.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nr ... aign=cppst
