Education here is expensive, especially for international students. My friends doing undergraduate programmes at the University of Alberta pay 50,000 CAD every single year. But they are children of politicians, so they are fine. One girl I met before leaving Alberta, her parents got her an apartment and are paying her mortgage (before Canada withdrew this privilege from temporary residents). She got a car, too, and is living the la vida loca life. But many others are really struggling to pay their fees. People have withdrawn because they cannot afford the expenses. One boy in my school who left a Pharmacy programme in his third year in Nigeria also did not know international students pay a lot more than regular students. His agent lied to him. He worked full-time and missed many of his classes so he could raise the fees, which he was paying instalmentally. He was brilliant, so he passed his papers. But they almost suspended him because he failed to meet the minimum requirement for attendance. Thankfully, the DEI office and student union advocated for him. There is also a Ghanaian boy in my class who couldn’t pay the 2000 CAD balance of his school fees. He had to repeat all his courses, five of them. He will graduate later than us and will have to pay for the full session again. There was an immigrant who died here, in Toronto, because of the cold. He was homeless. There are many in my province, too, who are homeless. People squat around and live in shelters (especially asylum seekers) because they cannot afford rent. It is awful to be homeless in this climate. There’s a lot of shame in studying abroad when you don’t have the means. So, people don’t like sharing. Will someone tell you she’s squatting in a man’s house and helping him with chores and laundry just so she can have free accommodation? How many people do you want to share that with? Everybody has their personal story that will die with them. I have a friend who, throughout her stay, lived with a guy who maltreated her. She knows she can’t afford rent because she’s paying huge student fees. She can’t just leave and get her own place. And maybe she lied in her application that her dad is rich. How do you tell the authorities one man is maltreating you? Wouldn’t they ask you to go get your own place since you have rich parents?
As narrated by: IFEOLUWA (TORONTO, CANADA)
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