The foreign students who say they were lured to Canada by a lie

[kevinUsa]

International students say Canadian private colleges use agents working on commission, both here and overseas, who persuade student recruits that paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition is the easiest way to get into Canada and work toward becoming a permanent resident.

In some cases, recruits say they signed up for courses they weren’t interested in or didn’t plan to attend because all they really wanted was a student work permit so they could get a job as soon as they arrived.

The criticism of private colleges comes after a recent Globe and Mail investigation reported that recruiters exploit foreign nationals for their money, their labour or both. The cases The Globe looked at affected more than 2,000 people who were told – often falsely – that if they gave recruiters huge fees to arrange jobs or college placements, they would be set for life in Canada.

The reality for international students is that immigration rules allow them to work only 20 hours a week while studying, and provide limited opportunities to stay in Canada after graduation unless they meet language and other requirements and find employers willing to sponsor them.

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Canadian immigration rules allow international students to work only 20 hours a week while studying, and provide limited opportunities to stay in Canada after graduation.

Jimmy Jeong

Since its initial investigation, The Globe has interviewed more than two dozen former and current international students in British Columbia and Ontario who feel disillusioned by their experience.

 

Some told The Globe they hoped their courses would lead to good jobs in Canada, but they were a waste of time and money because no Canadian business was willing to hire them in their field of study afterward.

Others did not even attend classes. Instead, they say they worked more hours than legally allowed while trying to get a Canadian employer to sponsor them for permanent residency, which then meant applying for a full-time work permit, and often paying more fees to immigration consultants to do the paperwork.

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Devinder Thind came from India and now works at a Nando’s fast-food franchise in B.C. He said he just enrolled in his third college program, to study arts.

Mr. Thind said he has paid $32,500 for courses so far, with money he borrowed mostly from his brother. He did that, he said, simply to maintain his student work permit while trying to persuade his employer to sponsor him. His goal was to get permanent residency and find a much better job.

“The [recruiters] make us fake promises like it is good in Canada, you can get your work permit, and it’s all not true," he said. "The whole experience was really bad. Lots of people misguided me. They just use us, right?”

 

The $15-billion business

Private colleges are big business. In the provinces with the most international students, Ontario now has 476 college and university campuses approved to enroll international students, while B.C. has 256. Most are for-profit companies, regulated by provincial education authorities. They are generally smaller than publicly funded colleges and universities, face less public scrutiny and have lower admission standards.

The number of Canadian study permits granted to foreign nationals has jumped 40 per cent in recent years, to 358,190 last year, from 219,195 in 2015. Canadian Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has boasted that these students added some $15-billion to the Canadian economy last year alone.

“We are contributing and attracting the best and the brightest from around the world to contribute to our economic growth,” Mr. Hussen said recently in Ottawa.

Applications from international students accelerated after Canada relaxed its rules five years ago to allow them to work off campus, part-time, immediately upon arrival. The students’ spouses may be eligible to apply for open work permits, which allow them to work full-time for any employer.

Federal data show immigration officials rejected more than one-third of all study permit applications last year, up from one quarter five years ago, because visa officers increasingly don’t believe foreign nationals will return home after studying.

Still, it is relatively easy for recruiters and consultants to get international students into private colleges, because they have lower entry requirements than public ones, including for English proficiency.

 

Those businesses also pay recruiters higher commissions than publicly funded institutions do – up to 25 per cent of tuition – according to several immigration consultants familiar with the fee structures. Colleges have formal arrangements with particular agents, whom they approve to recruit students on their behalf.

An overwhelming experience

One of the private colleges Mr. Thind attended was Sprott Shaw College, which has 16 campuses in B.C. “The instructor was not good, they were just wasting time,” he said of his business-management program.

The provincial agency that regulates private colleges received two formal complaints about Sprott Shaw in the past two years, but neither was upheld. The regulator doesn’t release details about complaints.

Sprott Shaw’s president, Victor Tesan, said the college focuses “on education, not immigration” and that its teachers have ratings of more than four out of five in student surveys. However, Mr. Tesan said he understands the whole experience can be difficult for international students.

“Leaving your country and your culture is a very overwhelming experience,” Mr. Tesan said.

Gurpreet Kaur, also from India, is paying tuition to stay enrolled at Sprott Shaw even though she graduated from its early-childhood education program months ago. That is the only way she can work legally, part-time, while she looks for an employer to sponsor her beyond that.

 

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Gurpreet Kaur is paying tuition to stay enrolled at Sprott Shaw even though she graduated from its early-childhood education program months ago.

DARRYL DYCK

“If I got a full-time job, I would just quit the school,” said Ms. Kaur, whose parents have spent $37,500 on her tuition.

“Most [employers] say they can’t really help me,” she said, in tears, adding the employers either don’t need anyone or don’t want to deal with the immigration paperwork to sponsor her.

“I am applying for early-childhood education preschool teacher,” Ms. Kaur said. “I paid that much tuition fees. I want to be in my profession.”

Ms. Kaur and Mr. Thind are among several recruits who told The Globe that discussions they had with Sprott Shaw’s international student adviser – who has since left to start his own college – led them to think they could get three-year work permits when they graduated, so they could stay in Canada, work full-time and apply for permanent residency.

“Then I graduated, and the international adviser said that I was not eligible anymore,” Ms. Kaur said.

Sprott Shaw doesn’t have degree programs, so none of its graduates qualify for work permits. Its president told The Globe that 28 students signed a letter a year ago complaining about that, but he said they were told as much when they started classes.

 

“That was in the [enrollment] documentation that they signed,” said Mr. Tesan, adding that the paperwork was in English, not the students’ native language. He said the college now posts messages online and around campus about the lack of postgraduation work permits.

Just 24 per cent of postsecondary institutions that recruit international students to B.C. have programs that allow students to get work permits after graduation. In Ontario, that number is 45 per cent. Almost all are publicly funded.

Sandeep Kaur signed up to study accounting at a private college, after she and her husband Amarjit Singh Hare came to Canada on visitor visas. She said she spent only a few days at Western Community College in B.C. after an immigration consultant in Surrey charged $25,000 to enroll her, she said, and told her she didn’t have to attend.

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Sandeep Kaur, left, signed up to study accounting at a private college, after she and her husband Amarjit Singh Hare, right, came to Canada on visitor visas.

DARRYL DYCK

“I kept asking him, ‘Are you sure I don’t have to go?’” Ms. Kaur said, adding that she believed him. “He just told us, ‘I will do something for you … you will get a work permit and a study permit and your husband can get a work permit.’”

The couple’s work permits have expired, they can’t find employers to sponsor them and face expulsion from Canada.

“We were just fooled,” she said. “I went [to classes] for some time, but the study materials were not good. … I was unable to understand what the teacher was saying.”

 

The dean of programs for Western Community College, which has two strip-mall locations in Surrey, said the college makes it “very clear” that students have to attend.

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Western Community College campus is in a strip mall in Surrey, B.C.

Jimmy Jeong

“Immigration consultants are not authorized to make any statement/commitment on behalf of the college,” Vandana Khetarpal said in an e-mail.

A former student adviser from another small, private college told The Globe her job was to track down students who had signed up and keep them registered and paying for their classes.

“About a third … show up the first day and get their study permit and their work permit and they disappear,” said Edith Chiu, who worked at the college for several months in 2016.

She agreed to share her information if the college was not named, because she said she signed an agreement not to talk about the business when she quit. Ms. Chiu said the college was “all for show” and some students paid staff to give them good grades and not report them to immigration authorities for missing classes.

“I had students come to me and ask, ‘How much is it to get an A from you?’ and I would say, ‘I don’t do that,’” Ms. Chiu said. “Students would quickly learn who they can bribe and who they cannot … and the show goes on.”

The Globe looked into another private college, Pacific Link, after immigration consultant Jasbir Mahal said some of its students came to him hoping he could get them a job or admission to a public institution, which would qualify them for a work permit after graduation.

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The Burnaby campus of Pacific Link College.

Jimmy Jeong

He said they only signed up with Pacific Link College to get into the country.

“They said … ’We just have to pay the fee and we don’t have to show up and do the class,’” Mr. Mahal said. “They are using this loophole to enter Canada.”

Pacific Link’s campus in Burnaby, B.C., is in an office building. When The Globe visited, the one visible classroom was vacant, and a building-maintenance person said he has never seen a single student.

Campus manager Kelly Ewaski said classes at that location – with 30 students enrolled – are only on weekends. He said he isn’t surprised some have no interest in studying.

“It happens every month there are a couple who are expelled when they don’t attend,” said Mr. Ewaski, who estimated one-third will not graduate. He said many simply use the college as their ticket to come to Canada and work.

“I have had a couple of students on orientation day and we ask them ‘Which program are you studying?’ And they don’t even know. How bad is that?” he said. “I don’t find that the most honest way to come in and immigrate.”

[kevinUsa]

The good thing here is at least these are young people coming here for work.  Not the losers I've see being dumped at the Windsor-Detroit border, i.e., unwanted seniors and fifth wives from around the world who immediately hire a lawyer and claim "refugee" status or "compassionate status", and once they get that, then they want to go on disability status asap as they often have no intention of working.  Windsor-Detroit border is a farce.  At least the young folk who are being driven here by Trump seem to have the energy and drive to keep pushing the labor force forward. Aside from the so called private for profit colleges, the smartest of the foreign students that come to the more recognized universities seem to get jobs pretty easily as they are very gifted individuals in my experience here at the Windsor border the past several decades.

[kevinUsa]

No sympathy here.  These “students” are clearly not here to study so “buyer beware”.  Our daughter went to the US to study at a small Liberal Arts college because that was the best place to achieve her educational goals. We paid in full.  Once there, she decided she’d like to stay but found that under Trump companies are unwilling to sponsor foreigners.  That’s the way it goes.  She’s back here working, hired because of the education she received.  

[kevinUsa]

This article rises important issues. However, it is not only private colleges that are offering their programs as a route through Canadian immigration. My own university (Thompson Rivers University) offers several programs that are designed to do the same. The main examples are post-baccalaureate diplomas, which are subscribed to almost totally by foreign students hoping that they are a path through Canadian immigration. The misleading of foreign students is a legitimate concern raised by the article. However, I believe that an even bigger issue involves public and private institutions being involved in profitable schemes to help potential immigrants circumvent the normal route through Canadian immigration.

[kevinUsa]

I have no sympathy for those students who claimed they were conned or misled by the “consultants’.  Clearly these students have no intentions to be a student in Canada, only want to game the system.  Then they are being exploited by unscrupulous consultants and colleges (proliferation of which probably is prompted by the study/work permit system to recruit these international students and charge them a bundle) is inevitable.  The con being conned.  Our government should cancel this student study /work program.  Student VISA means being a student only, period.

[kevinUsa]

A 'career college' in Toronto places students with families as live-in au pairs and then the host family pays money to the college. This is meant to cover the au pair's tuition fees. The  whole thing just feels totally wrong. I tried to find a way to let Immigration know about this as I don't think it is legal and may be exploitative but it is impossible to get in contact with them.

[kevinUsa]

Many people seem to think this is a Liberal policy and are using the isolated examples for criticism of our current government.

However, the program was instituted in its current form by the Harper government, so please consider that before launching into unjustified partisan sniping. 

There is enough to criticize the Liberals for without having to resort to unjustified attacks.

That said, the program is working, it's necessary and if people really knew how it worked at real colleges and universities they'd realize it's such a win win for everyone that, as some people say to the south of us, they'd get tired of winning. 

[kevinUsa]

 

 

23 hours ago

 

Maybe I am missing something here in how this is a win-win situation but should foreign students be allowed to buy and speculate on Canadian real estate while they study ?  In my opinion, this practice should stop and it is up to the Liberal gov't to cut the loopholes in immigration .

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago

 

Anne, real estate is a private competitive market. It's based on supply and demand. Any time the government interferes with the pricing mechanisms there are unintended consequences, almost always negative.

Limiting demand lowers prices, which helps buyers at the expense of sellers, and real estate assets end up being under valued. 

About the loopholes, yes they could be tightened up a bit, but all systems need some flexibility and slack, so how much tightening do we do before the system stops working altogether? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 hours ago

 

Black Swan:  The program you favor amounts to government providing some of the demand for residential real estate, and it is sure benefiting the sellers & the landlords at the expense of everyday persons especially those with medium to low incomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 hours ago

 

Well said2301.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 hours ago

 

Please elaborate the "win win for everyone" point to those who are suffering the pain of unaffordable housing as foreign students gobble up Canadian residential real estate with funds provided by their parents, in some cases parents connected lucratively to odious authoritarian regimes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 hours ago

 

I really know how it works and the whole thing smells bad. In the public colleges, some programs have more than 50% international students. The majority of them don't attend classes. I have been approached with bribery and begging when they fail or are caught cheating which happens a lot. It's a cash cow for the colleges, many of the students are here to work and/or find a back door into the country. It's a dirty game from every angle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago

 

Canada's 'higher' institutions of learning are no more honest than any other busines including used car dealers.

I feel a smidgeon of pity for these people, but 
'a sucker is born every moment'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago

 

Your comparison to used car dealers is interesting because reading this article I was thinking about how much for-profit colleges share in common with them.

A Nobel prize-worthy economics paper titled "The Market for Lemons" talked about how information asymmetry is deeply problematic for the used car market, because the seller knows the quality of the car is but the buyer doesn't have a reliable way to figure it out.

For-profit schools are the same. Low quality programs are hard to distinguish from high quality programs until after you graduate and can't get a job. So the profit incentive punishes schools who would prefer to offer high quality.

Much better to stick with not-for-profit institutions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago

 

Memo: to cassandrall
From: used car dealers.

Thanks for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 hours ago

 

Find out what you are referring to first, Cass. Real "higher" or fake "higher"?

[kevinUsa]

"Ontario now has 476 college and university campuses approved to enroll international students, while B.C. has 256. Most are for-profit companies, regulated by provincial education authorities."

So that's 732 private "campuses" in two provinces alone?

Who monitors teaching practices and standards there -- the folks who licensed them in the first place? 
 

[kevinUsa]

The Immigration system has too many loopholes and entry for people who are taking advantage of us in Canada.  Pressure the PM to close down these loopholes a.s.a.p.  No-one with a student visa /10 year visa should be allowed to purchase property here for starters.  It should not be so easy to gain Canadian citizenship by enrolling in bogus college programs or any other legitimate post secondary institution.  There is no shortage of immigrant applicants so no fast tracking is unacceptable.

[kevinUsa]

The experience at a real college is considerably different than what is described in this article.

International students must attend classes regularly, like all students, or face suspension or expulsion. Work is very important to them, but they learn quickly that the path to an extended work permit, permanent residency, and eventually citizenship begins with successful completion of their degree or diploma requirements. Most have the wisdom to reduce their work hours when the end of semester crunch comes. 

For the most part, international students are just wonderful, high spirited young people who quickly become infatuated with Canada, western culture, and the life and opportunities they only dreamed of before. All this, by the way, is what we take for granted.

They are counseled and mentored when necessary, and a real college does a good job of preparing them for a life in Canada, if that's what they choose. In our college a brilliant young international student with a promising future won the President's Award! We are so proud of her, and proud of all our students.

Don't let the deception of private colleges shape this narrative. It's a good regulated program that works.

[kevinUsa]

I'm to hear that. My experience has been positive, so I'm basing my comments on a narrow set of data.

But we have capped our international enrolment so domestic students don't feel overwhelmed, and we've increased the math and English requirements. Our students are all very well integrated and most are actively participating in student life and politics. 

Each year we celebrate new successes and I'm so proud to be a part of that. I didn't realize that we may be an exception to the rule. 

I hope you got some value from your college experience and that you are able to move on and achieve success in life. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago

 

"...But we have capped our international enrolment..."

Who's "we"?  Or should that be, "what's "we"?"  Ahh, I think I get it. You somehow neglected to inform readers in either of your comments that you appear to be someone who is responsible, in part, for  a "college experience."

Proud of "being a part of that" in a "real college," are you? That's excellent.
Why not tell us the name of your institution, so others might benefit?

 

 

[kevinUsa]

ny Canadian students can't afford tuition because the criteria for funding, and the amount available, continues to shrink. These are lower and in some cases middle class people who will have massive debt, a worry international students don't have because only rich people can afford international student tuition. Other factors compound the problem, e.g. many Canadian students have to move away to attend school. They get squeezed by the housing market while international students rent out posh condos right next to or on campus. Is that fair?

I went to U of T and even in my fourth year classes, I was shocked to see that some of the students who gave presentations had such poor English, it was as though they had just arrived in the country. How did they pass the previous three years? Are these the kind of "ambitious young people" we're supposed to welcome to this country, knowing there are plenty born here who've been systematically disadvantaged? Before we open up our education to spoiled kids from abroad, we should give our own a fair shake. It's common sense.

 

 

[TensionNahiLeneka]

matter in 2 lines pelase. 

[TensionNahiLeneka]

not all these posts, once fasak please