Rethink Education – Part 2 of 5

Rethink Education – Part 2 of 5

The Recruitment Machine: International Students and Exploitation

It’s easy to look at international students and say, “They came here and took jobs and housing.” But that perspective misses the bigger story — the story of how students are recruited, promised the world, and left to struggle.

British Columbia has become a magnet for international students, particularly from India, who are often funneled through recruitment agencies that promise education, work, and even the possibility of Canadian citizenship. Families borrow money, sell property, and sacrifice everything to send their children here. They trust the system. And yet, the system often fails them.

Take Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in Surrey as an example. Surrey campuses are heavily populated with international students, many coming from the same regions abroad. The university has built budgets around tuition revenue from these students — but how much transparency exists? How are recruitment practices monitored? Are students truly getting the education they were promised, or are they being treated as revenue streams?

Vancouver Community College and Langara have similar models: aggressive international recruitment to cover budget gaps caused by underfunded provincial support. But the consequences are clear:

• Students face sky-high tuition, sometimes three or four times domestic rates.
• Housing is scarce and expensive, forcing students into shared apartments or unsafe accommodations.
• Employment pressures mount, often pushing students into low-wage, unstable jobs just to survive.
• Immigration changes and permit caps can pull the rug out from under them, leaving students stranded.

This isn’t a problem caused by the students themselves. They are victims of a recruitment machine designed to maximize profit. Governments, colleges, and private agents all play a role in keeping this system in motion. And yet, when things go wrong, the blame falls on the students.

I’ve seen this pattern before. Back in 1991, when I moved from the Fraser Valley to Castlegar for college, the campus cafeteria was divided almost like clockwork: Canadians in one corner, Japanese students in another, and Chinese students in their own space. Many had homestays, with local families profiting off their presence. I even had the joy of teaching conversational English to a couple of Japanese students — a wonderful experience — but the system around us was clearly built to cash in. Decades later, we see the same patterns repeated on a much larger, more exploitative scale.

It’s why calls for audits and accountability are so urgent. KPU, for example, and other post-secondary institutions need independent audits to answer questions like:

• How heavily do we rely on international tuition for survival?
• How transparent are recruitment practices in origin countries?
• Are students given honest information about costs, work opportunities, and housing availability?

Until these questions are addressed, thousands of students will continue to pay with their money, their time, and their futures.

The exploitation of international students is a reflection of a larger failure in how we value education. It’s a system built for profit, not for people — and as I know from personal experience, when a system is designed that way, everyone loses.

Next in the series:

Part 3 – Indigenous Students: Education as a Commodity. We’ll explore tuition inequities for Indigenous students, the role of band support, and how many are left behind despite promises of accessible education.