Karan Singh says his parents decided to send their son to Canada because they thought he’d get into fights at home.
The 20-year-old, who studies criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in Surrey, B.C., hails from the tiny village of Bakipur in Haryana state, in northern India.
“There are not a lot of opportunities available to the youth [if] we compare to Canada,” Singh said. “The political situation in Haryana at the moment is not very well.
Singh is among hundreds of thousands of Indian students who are choosing to call B.C. and Canada home, leading to a sharp rise in new student visa applications since 2015.
While Singh cites personal safety as the main reason for coming here in December 2021, experts say there are specific circumstances that have triggered a sharp influx of students from India recently.
Karan Singh, 20, is from Haryana state in India. He’s among hundreds of thousands of Indian international students in Canada, part of a trend that has been going on since 2015. (Sarbmeet Singh/CBC)
However, the biggest driver of immigration recently has been post-secondary education and the promise of the Canadian dream.
In 2015, student permit applications from India were nearly on par with those from China.
Seven years later, applications from India made up nearly half of all the student permit applications between January and June, while those from China — the second-highest contributor of international students — remained relatively stable.
There were nearly 509,000 university students in B.C. during the 2020/21 academic year, according to a ministry spokesperson. Of those students, 151,185 were international students.
A 2017 report estimated that a quarter of all international students in Canada were in B.C.
Youth unemployment and rise of middle class
Henry Yu, a history professor at the University of B.C., said in an email that the sharp rise in applications from India can be attributed to a growing middle class in the country that can afford to send their kids abroad.
Research shows that the Indian middle class has grown substantially since economic reforms were implemented in the 1990s, with a consequent increase in spending power.
Shinder Purewal, a political scientist at KPU, also says the varied fields of study offered in Canada are attractive for youngsters in India, especially given the high youth unemployment rate.
“Keep in mind — India has the largest under 25 or younger population in the world,” he said. “Job opportunities for such a large number of people are rather limited in India.”
Purewal also says that India’s private and tech sectors — which have been growing rapidly — don’t offer the job security or benefits that Canada’s employers do.
For Sana Banu, who came to Canada in 2018 to study advertising at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ont., the promise of permanent residency and the ability to contribute to Canada’s diverse workforce was a big draw.
“Canada is in need of skilled immigrants and skilled workers to further their economy,” she said. “I found that Canada has a very accepting culture.”
Sana Banu, from Hyderabad, India, has applied for permanent residency in Canada. (Submitted by Sana Banu)
Disparity in fee structure
International education is seen as a marker of skill, according to researchers, leading to a parallel economy in India that seeks to send students abroad.
Tashia Kootenayoo, the secretary-treasurer of the B.C. Federation of Students, says many of those students come here in unstable circumstances.
“In our data and surveys … almost half — 47 per cent — of international students do not have strong financial resources,” she said. “Most students report that they are surprised by the cost of living here in British Columbia.”
Kootenayoo says that the federation found that international students made up about 20 per cent of an institution’s overall student population, but they paid nearly half the total tuition fee revenues.
“Their fees are being used to make up for the gaps in [university] operational budgets,” she said. “This is an issue that the provincial government needs to address.”
According to Kootenayoo, surveyed students — many of whom are from India — have reported a rise in food bank use in recent years.
“The province is allowing institutions to exploit these students. That is a very unfair system and unjust,” she said.
Kootenayoo and the federation are asking for more public funding for B.C. institutions, as well as regulations freezing and capping the fees international students pay.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pay tribute to the life of Murray Sinclair, former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sinclair died November 4, 2024 at the age of 73. (Nov. 4, 2024)
