Not Your Cash Cow, Not Your Scapegoat : Student Migration and Canadian Universities

International students have long been seen as cash cows by Canadian universities, a revenue stream of high tuition fees for the same education received by lower-paying domestic students. While in the past their inclusion has been lauded as “recruiting global talent” to Canada, more recently these students have been blamed for social issues from housing shortages to spreading disease — various reductive framings that instrumentalize student migrants for political purposes. Meanwhile, student migrants are often surprised to face isolation, poverty and racism, and disappointed by lacklustre university services meant to help them navigate life in Canada.

This book places the international student within the larger context of edugration, or student migration, to examine the everyday vulnerabilities arising from this immigration status. It gathers insights about racialization from over 120 nationwide interviews with student migrants from Asia, revealing how student migrants cope with prejudice, create networks and manage their own integration. Collectively written by postsecondary educators, researchers and students, including student migrants themselves, this book features evidence-based, critical and antiracist recommendations toward holistically supporting student migrants from Asia to Canada.