Foreign Students Priorities

Foreign students need a Social Insurance Number (SIN) if they want to work in Canada. It’s a government thing. It loves taxes. You work, get paid, the government wants a cut.

Both local and foreign students work for the same reason: extra cash. However, they are in college for different reasons. For Canadian and American students, it is the next step in preparation for employment with substantial benefits.

Foreign students also have a rosy future in mind because of the perception that a degree from the University of Manitoba or Columbia University in New York, is better than any degree from Africa or Asia. Parents in these continents still hold foreign degrees in high esteem.

It is just a perception because there are only 24 hours a day and a student has only one body. Therefore, if part time jobs are the priority, they don’t have enough time to study and absorb all the book elements, supposedly exclusive to a Canadian or American university.

Universities in Africa and Asia are foster children of parent universities in England. The Queen’s ancestors crossed the seas in the Royal Navy and colonized north America, giving birth to institutions like Brock University in Canada or Kent State University in Ohio.

Foreign students who make part time jobs a priority, are proof that foreign degrees are not better than those from their own countries. They are in Canada and U.S. for the currency. The minimum wage they get is doubled, when dollars are converted into money, back home.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.