Canada Held the Door Open for International Students. Then Slammed It in Their Face

They contributed more to the GDP than the entire auto industry. Now the country doesn’t want them anymore

BY MARCELLO DI CINTIO

From Siddhesh Inamdar, features editor:

A few weeks ago, I read Marcello Di Cintio’s new book, Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers. I have some experience of navigating Canada’s complex immigration system myself, so I had a personal interest in the subject. The book didn’t disappoint. Built on four years of rigorous reporting—an effort previewed in Di Cintio’s piece we published last year, on the abuses rampant within the Temporary Foreign Worker Program—Precarious is a journalistic tour de force and the definitive account of the lives of immigrants in Canada. Today we feature an adapted excerpt from the book, on the international students hit hard by recent changes.

The Walrus’s consistent coverage of immigration offers unique perspectives. With the system in flux like never before, we go beyond polls and government sound bites to bring readers up close to the people directly affected—among them students, farm workers, personal caregivers, Uber drivers, refugees, undocumented children. Together, they form a significant, if often unseen, part of Canada’s story.

It’s a story whose shifts and contradictions we’ve followed closely. Go deeper with more of our recent reporting for a better understanding of an increasingly divisive issue:

• Pay Tuition, Follow the Rules, Then Pack Your Bags

• How the Right Is Turning Youth Unemployment into Outrage over Foreign Workers

• Canada Is Wasting the Talent of Immigrants It Invites Here – Just Ask Your Uber Driver

• When Immigrants Oppose Immigration

• The Case for 100 Million Canadians

• “Guaranteed Jobs” That Don’t Exist: The Dark World of Immigration Consultants

• The Unspoken Contradictions of Quebec’s Immigration Policy

• Invisible Lives: Meet Canada’s Undocumented Kids

• The Shadowy Business of International Education