Thank you.
Thank you for the invitation here today. I am the chairperson-elect of the Canadian Federation of Students in Newfoundland and Labrador. Our federation represents over 600,000 post-secondary students across Canada on 80 different campuses, including all post-secondary students in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Private member's motion 39 asks you to investigate the issue of immigration to Atlantic Canada. It asks you to consider, among other things, the challenges of retaining new immigrants and possible recommendations on how to increase immigration to Atlantic Canada. Research tells us that Atlantic Canada needs more immigrants, and international students are an ideal audience for new citizens. For that to happen, however, we must end discriminatory practices at the federal and provincial levels. At the federal level, we need more certainty for existing pathways to Canadian citizenship. At the provincial level, we must end discriminatory practices in overseas recruitment, tuition fees, public health care coverage, and employment standards. If we treat international students with respect, and not as cash cows for budget cuts, they can help Atlantic Canada meet the challenges of our aging society.
I speak as an international student. I am from Ecuador, and I recently graduated with a major in psychology and a minor in French from Memorial University at the Grenfell Campus. I wanted to come to Canada for numerous reasons. There was political unrest in my country, where universities are mostly privatized. As well, employers tend to hire people with degrees from universities outside the country.
But I had no opportunity to study abroad. My mother was widowed when I was 11 years old, and we struggled economically. Then a recruiter from Memorial University came to my high school and told me about Memorial's theatre program and its tuition freeze for all students. When I was offered a scholarship from Memorial University covering my first year's tuition, I headed north.
I didn't realize that my years here would be filled with anxiety and fear. For example, it wasn't until I arrived at Grenfell Campus that I was told I could not minor in theatre. This was despite communication beforehand, numerous times, with my academic adviser. It was not an auspicious beginning to my time here in Canada.
Starting in 2014 I had long conversations with my mother about whether I could continue my studies. The tuition freeze for international students was threatened. No Ecuadorian university would have accepted my credits due to the difference in language, so if the tuition had increased, it would have meant two years down the drain for me.
Memorial University's new ancillary fees are driving international students away, because many of us simply cannot afford an extra $600 per year. Immigration rules dictate that we can only work part time, so we can't even take on another job to try to compensate. Meanwhile, we are the ones who use the campus food bank the most. We are already struggling to get by and can't eat proper meals today, let alone when these new fees come into effect.
Memorial University's tuition fee hikes scheduled for 2021 are also driving prospective students away. I know this from my own family. I have cousins who wanted to come to Memorial University but can't afford the added costs. They cannot apply for government loans from either country if they choose to come to Canada. They will therefore have to remain in Ecuador in order to avail themselves of that option. Private loans aren't great either, since interest rates are so high. Now my cousins are considering going to other countries, such as Germany, or staying in Ecuador.
Moreover, nobody told me that in Corner Brook the transit system doesn't circulate on weekends or evenings, the only times I could buy my groceries. The recruiter didn't tell me that I couldn't find a job off campus until I stopped telling people I was from Ecuador, or that many employers wouldn't even hire me because my accent was too thick.
My summers were full of anguish too. Even though I am grateful to live in one of the provinces that provide health care to international students, I always feared summer term, when spring term courses were over and my medical care plan expired. There were no useful courses for my degree being offered at that time, so I couldn't renew my medical care because I was not enrolled in any course, and I could not go back to Ecuador because I could not afford it. I was trapped, working to save money for next semester while hoping nothing would happen to me while I was not medically insured.
Despite the obstacles, I have made my life in the province and I want to stay, but I also know that it is incredibly difficult to immigrate to Newfoundland and Labrador, given the current conditions.
Members of the committee, that's just my story, but I am not alone. Hundreds of thousands of international students have these problems on a daily basis and those problems must end, if we want them to stay and help build our communities. I am honoured to have been chosen by my colleagues to be a public voice for the renewal of our post-secondary sector, and we do have ideas to ensure that international students are treated with respect.
Thanks again for the invitation here. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.