The Canadian dream of Indian students is turning sour. Out of a total of 4.34 lakh international students who immigrated to Canada in the first six months this year, 1.75 lakh students were from India.

But six months down the line, thousands of these students are now repenting to have gone there due to rising rents, no availability of part-time jobs to support themselves and many have alleged that in the name of education they are being taught either online or in the cineplexes despite having reached Canada.

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“So what happens to the Canadian campus experience, if they wanted to teach them online despite being on their soil?” asks Gurpreet Singh, whose son is in Nova Scotia struggling to stay afloat. “Gurpreet says, “My son is still taking online classes despite being on Canadian soil. He is doing an 8-hour work shift and travelling three hours to and fro for work and that leaves him with little time to study.”

TS Rathore, whose daughter too is studying digital marketing at a college in Brampton says, “My daughter went to Brampton two years ago. She is also struggling to get a good job and keep apace with the Canadian lifestyle. The rents have suddenly skyrocketed and as many as four to six children are sharing basements.”

In Sydney, Nova Scotia many students, Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerian have complained that they are being taken to cineplexes for classes since the college campuses are infrastructurally incomplete. “Everything is makeshift,” says another student not willing to get named.

Another student who recently featured in a YouTube documentary which broke the myth of the Canadian dream said that there was a world of difference between what was promised and what the students got. “We were promised the moon and hell is what we got into. Classes in cinema theatres, crowded and shared accommodation is what we have got.”

Among Indians, students immigrating to Canada from Punjab are the highest in number. Out of the 1.75 lakh international students who immigrated to Canada, about 40 to 45 per cent or 70,000 students are from Punjab.

Navalpreet Kaur, a student from Jalandhar, Punjab, who studies at a nondescript college in Canada, says, “What was shocking about our college which was supposedly full of international students was that 99 per cent of them were Indians, and 90 per cent of Indians were Punjabis. There were no Canadians. And that’s when we came to know that we had been cheated. It is like, imagine your college room is filled with students from Bathinda, Jalandhar and Ludhiana and we start calling an international experience in Canada.”

According to a Canadian immigration and advocacy group consultant not willing to get named, “The international students’ gold rush began 10 years ago when the federal government declared that Canadians needed more skilled immigrants. Since then, “Ontario province alone saw 15 per cent decline in enrollment of domestic students and 342 per cent growth in the enrollment of international students.”

Students who have borne the brunt say students should only seek admission in Canada in public universities which are supported by the government. The cost of education is more but at least there is no hanky-panky otherwise.