How recruiters in India use untrue promises to trap students to Canada – The Fifth Estate

On this edition of The Fifth Estate how far are international students willing to go to get an education in Canada the average Punjabi family will have to work 74 years to pay one year's of tuition and how far will Canadian colleges go to recruit them the focus has been numbers driven numbers numbers.

Numbers numbers and that's all literally that anyone cares about we reveal the deception selling dreams to desperate families we're going to be looking back at this in 20 years and how will we look back on this like a scar like an exploitation of of this this specific group of young people and.

The tool that takes on students we have a connection with one Funeral Home in India they're sending back dead bodies what each month I'm Mark Kelly in Toronto colleges and universities around the world are in a race now to recruit International students and Canada is all in so why the.

Race well post-secondary schools in this country charge International students five times the tuition domestic students pay for the same education and we investigated and found what international students are told and what they're sold is a far cry from the Canadian dream they thought they were paying for.

This is The Fifth Estate that are full of Hope they were lured here with the promise of a better future on 17th of May from alpha college no one else they are saying that we are unable to give you seats instead they're outside their.

College in Toronto claiming they've been lied to great explanation sold a second-rate school experience lots of Hope like we we think that college is our family if College don't think about us then whole thing and they want Canadians to know their story.

like all stories of hope this one starts with a dream gurdeep Singh has spent years toiling on his family farm growing wheat and rice in the breadbasket of India it's back-breaking lonely work but here's the payoff.

All his sweat and sacrifice has enabled him to send his only child dilbrate to school in Canada Singh says he sold two trucks to raise the 28 thousand dollars to send her to Toronto foreign on her future with few job prospects here in rural.

Punjab one of India's biggest exports is the country's youth Singh says in his village alone some 300 young people have left to study abroad they take with them the hopes and dreams of those that have left behind with no guarantee of success foreign.

Talks to her parents every day to ease the loneliness and the pressure to succeed do you feel that pressure though that you don't want to disappoint your parents I don't want to say yeah I do feel the pressure we have to say.

Something to them to console them and to say no don't worry Dad I'm fine I'm doing good so that's kind of live but why do you have to lie which is we don't really want them to be depressed we don't really want them to cry for us because they sent us here to be to have a great life.

Instead like many she feels they were sold a lie the face of Canada's colleges is changing over the last five years the number of international college students has more than doubled most are from rural India enrolled in small career colleges and many are.

Struggling to make it computer programming nursing Healthcare Management before they even step into a classroom newly arrived International students like these line up for social insurance numbers so they can get a job their parents hard work only covers a portion of their costs I'm here to get my sim.

Number and I'm waiting here for from 6 30. and finding a job isn't easy either dilpreet needed work so badly she took a job in a plastics factory 100 kilometers from where she's living like it's too far from my home so they provide dried so it takes around two hours to go there and it takes two hours.

To come back so it's like 12 hours of work four hours of like traveling so it's like 16 hours in total and I have to manage my college I have to manage my home and everything and finding a home in a red hot real estate market puts even more pressure on these students there's little available little affordable making them an easy.

Mark for unscrupulous landlords dilpry went from an only child in India to sharing a Crowded House of students should never met before so we are the basement it's like six people in the basement so it's like 15 people in just one of in one house which is crazy it's like too messy and it's like too.

Congested who are the six people in the basement so they are all students heart free core took that same well-worn path as so many of those students from Punjab to college in Canada she's a shy 19 year old carrying the weight of expectations of her family back home how much has your father paid so far.

For for your education um about 30 000 and where did he get thirty thousand dollars by mortgage the land or some bank loans she tells her parents about her life in Canada living with seven strangers.

Working overnight shifts to pay her way but after investing all this money they tell her there is no turning back now I can't live without my father it is my first experience even when I went to like my uncle and aunt's house and I called my father and again and again that can you please come can you please come bring me at home.

Like what did your father say to you when you told him that you should you you're a brave girl and it takes courage to fight back that's what this group is doing naming and shaming employers who are exploiting international students this protest led a restaurant owner to settle with a student for sixteen.

Thousand dollars in unpaid wages with students drowning in debt they're vulnerable underpaid overworked easy target for exploitation all your health now are you taking medicine is with Punjabi Community Health.

Services in Brampton he counsels International students in distress like this 25 year old how is the your like thought process now Gail found him sleeping in Parks addicted to drugs a life in crisis he brought him back to his parents in India loneliness they are missing their families.

Because they are not used to live alone back home in India that is one main factor to getting that mental illnesses depression stressed away from home away from family we're hearing reports of high numbers of suicides among International students in in Brampton who are coming over here there are.

Multiple reasons for the deaths on an average we have a connection with the one funeral home that is lotus Funeral Home on an average they are sending four to five dead bodies only International students each month what each month four to five dead bodies of.

All the international students in India they are sending back dead bodies you know so with so much at stake are the colleges part of the solution to help students or are they part of the problem coming up we take a closer look they're doing everything they can to find more.

Ways to bring in more students their Lobby is more students more students more students whether it is increasing class sizes whether it is irresponsibly bringing in students that they don't have enough support to offer I mean it doesn't matter what matters is numbers right so that's the issue if competing for international students.

Were a sport Canada would be on the podium we rank third behind the U.S and Australia in the race for students those students pumped 23 billion dollars a year into Canada's economy so what are they getting for their money just ask dilbride core an advisor urged her to enroll in a college she had never heard of and knew nothing about.

I don't know like why she just suggested me this college that I'm having right now so they were like okay you have this college get this so which college is that it's Alpha College Saint Lawrence Alpha college so I'm currently in second semester there if you haven't heard of alpha College either this could be why it's a small.

Career College located in the outskirts of Toronto one hundred percent of its students are international 99 from India but dilbrite wonders if Alpha is such a sought after college why aren't any Canadian kids enrolled there if there are like 500 students I have never seen a Canadian student in that so it means.

We are all International students and we are who are supporting that college that's all if the international students are not going in that college I guess like no one's going to that college because I haven't seen a Canadian student there anyways Alpha is a private for-profit college that partners with St Lawrence a public.

College in Kingston Ontario these public private Partnerships allow public schools in Ontario's outlying areas to cash in on the Bonanza of international students who want to study in and around Toronto the problem is of course nobody had a plan for those numbers at all right but the gist of it is the focus has been.

Numbers driven numbers numbers numbers numbers numbers and that's all literally that anyone cares about right is how many International students can we pack in and how much money can we get Earl Blaney runs an immigration and advocacy group he is the international student gold rush started 10 years ago.

After the federal government declared Canada needed more skilled immigrants since then in Ontario for example public colleges saw a 15 percent decline in domestic student enrollments but a 342 percent growth in international student enrollments I want to learn more about the role of the colleges in all of this and and how have you seen their their.

Appetite for international students change over the past decade their appetite is insatiable they're doing everything they can to find more ways to bring in more students their Lobby is more students more students more students so that's that's kind of how the industry has changed it's gone from International students like let's really.

Like make the best of this let's do what the policy says to let's pack him in right and so that's how the industry has changed and it's pretty ugly ugly in many ways many Canadian colleges are overwhelmingly reliant on money from International students to stay afloat with little attention given to the quality of the education they're paying.

For just last year Ontario's auditor general raised red flags saying there are quality audits at public colleges but as for their private Partners most of their programs have not yet been subject to an independent quality assurance audit and again and Christina decarre are.

Teachers at St Lawrence College they say there are so many reasons why International students struggle to keep up in school several of them living in certain circumstances where they can't necessarily even have a bed let alone a desk sharing a computer don't have a bed yeah.

Yeah they sleep in shifts yeah um some of them do yes some of them do so you're not necessarily renting a bedroom you're renting a bed and that that is not yours 24 hours a day it's yours eight hours a day well I've spoken with a recruiter who says look the game now is about numbers numbers yeah um they're people people people they are.

Individuals they are young people who are they're embarking on a dream on a journey if they come to class and they haven't eaten then they're not going to learn if they're they've stayed up all night to do a night shift because their boss told them and they didn't want to say no.

They're falling asleep in class or um if they're facing some kind of other stress like homesickness or being exploited by a landlord these things all come to the classroom and so we're not when you're teaching you're not just teaching the material you're teaching the people who are there and you have to face these these challenges in order to help them.

Learn thank you so if you think colleges are now pumping the brakes to slow the flow of international students think again.

This Is a Ply board based in Kitchener Ontario the company's Mission educate the world its international student recruiting on steroids apply board is one of the world's largest online platforms for international student recruitment with offices around the world apply board connects students with schools so.

They can study abroad what do you believe has been the main attraction for students who want to come to Canada why Canada I think it's a dream country in many sense I think Canada is a lined off mindful people that want to build something better our one team we build each other up and grow side by side this.

Corporate video showcases the company co-founders Three Brothers who came to Canada as International students we're so glad too a plyboard uses an army of recruiters to enroll International students and feed that insatiable appetite of Canadian colleges and universities how many agents do you have on the.

Ground uh with Santa call them recruitment partner and there is a partner there there's a I stand corrected how many recruitment Partners do you have appreciate that though and that's a word that fly would actually invented so recruitment partner and they're they're where we work about 10 000 with a recruitment partner is a.

Network that we build up in the past five years in 60 70 plus countries apply board is paid to recruit students for hundreds of Canadian colleges and universities so they don't have to do it themselves the aggregator model is basically just a large corporation science comp science.

Recruitment agreements with these with college a and then they sublet that recruitment agreement to 10 000 Plus sub-agents on the ground with who have absolutely no direct connection with the college the college has no ability to screen them they have no ability to review their work or conduct with the student promises made advertising you.

Name it right and some promises are empty promises let them pack it themselves right just ask these volunteers with Khalsa Aid an international Aid agency with a chapter in Brampton Ontario our biggest projects are internationally we set up water projects in remote Villages across the planet we've set up a solar projects.

We work with governments we work natural disasters we work man-made disasters like war and stuff like that that's what we do that's what we're known for this is what we're not known for is filling grocery bags and giving to International students that's not something that we've ever done until now.

Singh says Canada has created its own humanitarian crisis by charging International students as much as five times the tuition Canadian students pay for the same education the average Punjabi family will have to work 74 years I think it is 74 years to pay one year's of tuition that's a huge amount of Burden for a family to pick up.

Right that's not a 25-year mortgage that is a 75 74 year mortgage that you and I have to pick up all in the hopes that you know maybe our child can have a better life than we do consider this National students now contribute more money to the budgets of public colleges in Ontario than the Ontario government.

Does coming up we go to India with a hidden camera to reveal just how misleading agents can be as they recruit students for Canadian colleges the agents on the ground who's regulating them well there's nobody regulating them and this is really.

Really the sad part of it here in India the pitch to young people is clear Canada needs immigrants Canadian post-secondary schools need students this is where the sales job starts and as you're about to see so too does the deception.

hello for every kid with a dream to study and settle abroad there's a long line of businesses just waiting to make a buck off them these students are cramming for their high-stakes English proficiency exam these prep programs run about 300 bucks.

A pop foreign dies so we are supposed to read just the questions before questions what is important to read it's estimated more than a million Indian students take these classes every year hoping for that golden ticket an.

Education in coveted countries much good education facilities are available for the students so I think that's why I want to go to Canada I would love to go there just because it's environment and it's safe and even the every in the even the institutions have provide a very good facility about the education I basically want to stay there.

Have my white collar job and live a life that I have always dreamed of this school is regulated the problem most aren't they're an estimated 5500 English proficiency schools in Punjab alone some give struggling students a passing grade for a price setting them up for failure even before.

They leave India I'm calling from the company listen in as one student who passed the exam is called to verify his English proficiency what was your last semester of Bachelors I want to study this course because I want to make my career as a business administration I applied for MBA at Victoria University Australia.

Do you have any questions for me no ma'am thank you the result teachers tell us some students show up to class in Canada unable to speak English well think about the students who would be talking during class and it took us a while to figure out they're translating for each other so then I feel okay so.

Let me make little groups of four and let me get somebody who's really strong in English and make sure they can translate for the people who aren't but it took a while to notice that that's what was happening but I mean I know they have to pass an English proficiency test in order to get here people are very good at writing tests but not very.

Good at speaking English yeah English to come study in Canada Shady education agents do pay agents to help them get into Canadian schools and then apply for a student visa and here's where things get even murkier is the self-proclaimed number one education agent in India.

In this ad he says no English no problem he guarantees students a visa to Canada again all for a price Canada has been focusing on Punjab and and give me an idea of what it's like on the ground there for for students meeting recruiters meeting these agents just in the state of Punjab or North India you'll probably see uh thousands.

Of uh travel agents acting like education agents so it's actually a pretty large industry in India Ravi lokan Singh runs a global student recruitment company he's one of the good guys he says many aren't and I don't want to call them education agents at all because I don't think they are promoting education I think they are.

Just promoting a way to reach Canada and I think this is very important for me because after working in this trade for 31 years I find it very difficult to work in Punjab Market Per Se because there's no counseling really taking place this agency promises easy and Speedy visas.

Notice there's no mention of Education the ads the empty promises are everywhere in India come to Canada Vini Harry will make your dreams come true the agents on the ground who's regulating them well there's nobody regulating them and this is really really the sad part.

Of it these agents charge students fees for their services but they're also paid by Canadian colleges to recruit students as much as two thousand dollars for each student who enrolls we wanted to see what promises the agents were making students and their.

Parents this father and son who were interested in a Canadian education agreed to wear a hidden camera as they met agent after agent foreign student would need to work at least 50 hours a week at minimum wage to cover their cost of tuition and living expenses and many are sending money home.

As well the father then asks about a well-established College in Toronto but the agent directs him to a little-known Career College Hanson college is likely paying that agent a higher commission when contacted the school wouldn't confirm either way then another agent with a big promise.

It's so easy there are currently more than 250 000 people in a backlog waiting for their permanent residency to be approved even after the father and son left the agent's offices they were approached on the street by other recruiters in this Cutthroat competition they'll promise almost anything to get some.

Business Australia New Zealand the UK and Ireland signed a joint code of conduct for the ethical recruitment of international students to ensure agents are honest transparent and act with integrity Canada chose not to sign on it's a shame if you ask me you would think that there are hundreds.

And thousands of students Landing up in Canada some of these classrooms would be filled with students from Punjab but there is really no mechanism to put some code of ethics around the way students are recruited the system is built on misinformation they're all acting as unlicensed immigration Consultants across the board almost.

Without exception the Canadian government is well aware of that I mean there's no question about it um but the bottom line is that these recruiters are if they don't get the person through they don't get paid so they it's just they fire as many darts as you can at the board and hope for a high score in.

Terms of annual income right I mean that's what's happening if we are wrong we will leave the premises right now but we all know that we paid our fees so what happens when the focus is on numbers numbers numbers this does last spring hundreds of students at Alpha College were told their classes.

Had been deferred to a later date on 17th of May they send us an official email from alpha college no one else they are saying that we are unable to give you seats Alpha took their tuition checks but over enrolled Beyond its capacity for some the semester would be suspended.

They said you are on unofficial break we can't enroll you and uh I come here two to three times and they didn't hear my problems and didn't resolve it later on they told us that you were on unofficial break I have completed my first semester in the alpha college and after the first semester they are giving me unofficial drop and who emerged as one of the.

Student leaders Dil Creek Corps the students Express their concerns regarding spring enrollment the kicker after months of online classes this was the first time she'd ever laid eyes on the college her family paid for you were here for nine months and you hadn't seen Alpha college no so we saw that on the day of the protest I was like okay this.

Is my college it's crazy so before coming here it was kind of thing in my mind Canada is so beautiful I'm gonna come here just earn well live a life like have fun at the weekends like we saw in the movies so when I came here it was different but yeah it was completely different the protest dragged on for almost two.

Weeks eventually Alpha kicked students off the property welcome to Canada we wanted to use the mushroom and there were this little snow it was they no students allowed you think okay college is mine so this is the college where I'm gonna spend years and months and I'm gonna make memories.

There and everything like that but when they just say you're not allowed you cannot even use the washroom that is heartbreaking even the shy heartbreak core joined the protest she felt she had nothing left to lose my friends like from other colleges like they called me you what are you doing like it is not safe it is not good like what are you.

Doing they thought that protesting was a bad idea yeah they thought and uh then I told that it is for our rights then if we can't stand for our rights then who can stand ultimately the students won Alpha back down no deferrals took place The Fifth Estate obtained this document.

Which outlines what went wrong in Fall 2021 Alpha enrolled 2500 International students in Spring 2022 right before the protest the school doubled that number we obtained numbers that show Alpha college has the physical space to accommodate just over 400 students so the deferment was mismanagement the deferment was.

The administration office the administrator the overall directors the school their inability to keep track of the number of students that they were enrolling I think they were just seeing dollar signs I think they just have a because it's a private school they have stakeholders I think they're just.

Looking to impress them what's more education agents or online platforms recruited 100 of those International students for Alpha though it was up to the college to decide how many students to accept says the recruitment system is built on quantity not quality we should not be selling ourselves to.

What's the easiest way what's the fastest way what's the cheapest way you know what I mean like this should not be part of the determination it should be let's get the best people internationally bring them in so they think we can build a strong Canada and about the agents in Indiana that played by the migration fire them all.

So what led Alpha to over enroll International students no one from alpha or St Lawrence College would come on camera to discuss the protest or the plight of their International students when we come back we take the students concerns to Canada's immigration minister.

the federal government's 10-year push to attract more International students from India has created a massive backlog 160 000 Visa applications waiting to be processed leaving students in a lurch foreign calling on a higher power for help students leave these toy planes at.

Temples as an offering the hope that elusive Visa will arrive on a wing in a prayer he says he comes to the temple to ease his stress and ask God for a little help like I'm speechless with so many students from India eager to come to Canada apply board opened a recruiting office here to deal with pent-up demand.

LinkedIn those education agents we approached in India with a hidden camera work with a Ply board I'm always a big believer access and transparency yeah that's what a flower could do that's what we have done and that's what we're going to continue to do build a transparency for the students to make the best decision and that's a.

Good point but so we wanted to know more about what's happening on the ground too and and like you we're interested in finding more about transparency so we showed some of what we caught on camera to apply board co-founder Medi basiri actually he was also saying that you can go anywhere in Toronto and get an office.

Job once you go through a career college is that a fair promise to be able to make students I don't know about the office job I think now is the perfect time an opportunity for anyone looking for opportunity to find a job as a dream job of everyone no I started from pizza delivery and what about the promise of.

Permanent residency and I just want to ask you about that one what they're being told here is there's no problem getting permanent residency the message is absolutely wrong no one should or and it's clearly in our website is clearing our code of conduct it's actually a turns out condition no one should and that says.

Except if your immigration consultant then you should be able to advise no one should apply board says it's made substantial investments in training its recruiting partners and has a code of conduct that is enforced when needed as for Earl Blaney the international student advocate he says treating these.

Students like a product instead of people is bad for them bad for brand Canada can we improve the quality of Education can we get people jobs can we get them skills can we get them degrees that they will take home and be successful with absolutely we can do that but we're not trying right so that's the problem we're trying to pack.

Them in we're trying to get their money and we're trying to say okay job done right it's not how students feel about it right like they want something and we're not delivering period nobody seems to want to take responsibility 100 like who's who's who's responsible right who is responsible unfortunately the answer.

Is no one somebody has to be responsible Sean Fraser who's it going to be Sean Fraser is Canada's minister of immigration we took the student's fight to his office in Ottawa reports have come out that have said that Canada is now getting an international reputation for our post-secondary schools that are treating these kids as cash cows you.

Know it's it's something that actually troubles me greatly there are certain private career colleges that I'm convinced have come to exist just to make a buck on the back of the international student program it's completely unacceptable to what do we do about this I think we need to do a better job of working with provincial.

Governments to say we're hearing stories that are coming from X institution it's really problematic for us they're trying to grow their acceptance of international students to an extraordinary number we have concerns that it might be about financial impropriety rather than providing a quality education to students who are.

Coming here trying to better themselves nobody's cracking down on on these agents nobody's cracking down on the institutions that are taking the money well where's the accountability if there is examples of promoters who are tied to institutions that are taking advantage of students they then we need to work with provincial governments to say you.

Have a problem with these certain institutes if they they don't need my permission to de-designate an institution from the program we're highlighting a case where there was one school in Toronto I mean they went from 2500 students one year to 5 000 students the next year they only have a capacity for 400 students in the building then.

They told these students they've over enrolled and they were had to defer them these kids had to protest they're paying for their own exploitation it's distasteful I have no patience for it it's not what the program was designed for it's designed to provide an education to students and to benefit Canadian communities not to allow sham.

Operations to open up to financially abuse innocent students who have in their mind what Canada could be only to be let down because they've been sold a false bill of goods so the students have been heard but their fight is far from over I think that we're going to be looking back at this in 20 years and and how will we.

Look back on this well like it's like a scar like an exploitation of of this this specific group of young people I think it's unethical to recruit someone when they're not going to be able to succeed as for dilpreet she's learned some hard lessons about being an international student in Canada.

After all this protesting and everything happened this experience it it really made us feel like they just want our money and they just want us to give money and like again and again and get rich filling their pockets and don't really care about us at all and what about her dad.

Gurdeep Singh who bet his farm on her future he wonders after all the money he spent was it even worth it but he says he's so proud of his daughter urging her not to quit now.

Stay courageous he says keep fighting for your rights don't lose faith and one day you'll reach your destination

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