Home
Books
Not Your Cash Cow, Not Your Scapegoat

Not Your Cash Cow, Not Your Scapegoat

Student Migration and Canadian Universities

by The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective

This book places the international student within the larger context of edugration, or student migration, to examine the everyday vulnerabilities arising from this immigration status.

Request Exam Copy

About the book

International students have long been seen as cash cows by Canadian universities, a revenue stream of high tuition fees for the same education received by lower-paying domestic students. While in the past their inclusion has been lauded as “recruiting global talent” to Canada, more recently these students have been blamed for social issues from housing shortages to spreading disease — both reductive framings that instrumentalize student migrants for political purposes. Meanwhile, student migrants are often surprised to face isolation, poverty and racism, and disappointed by lacklustre university services meant to help them navigate life in Canada.

This book places the international student within the larger context of edugration, or student migration, to examine the everyday vulnerabilities arising from this immigration status. It gathers insights about racialization from over 120 nationwide interviews with student migrants from Asia, revealing how student migrants cope with prejudice, create networks and manage their own integration. Collectively written by postsecondary educators, researchers and students, including student migrants themselves, this book features evidence-based, critical and antiracist recommendations toward holistically supporting student migrants from Asia to Canada.

Canadian Studies Education Political Science Race & Anti-Racism

What people are saying

Jamie Liew, author of Ghost Citizens and Dandelion
“Rigorous and clearly written. A major contribution to empirical and primary research on migrant students’ experiences.”

Author

The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective

The Racialization of Asian International Students (RAIS) Collective is a team of racialized and non-racialized postsecondary educators, researchers and students, including student migrants from Asia, all located in Canada. Our research collaboration stems from the observation that international students, particularly those from Asia, have differing experiences in the Canadian postsecondary education sphere, compared to students from other places. Launched in 2018, our project was initially to document and compare the treatment of international students from Asia at five Canadian universities. Deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, this national team turned to unpacking the vulnerabilities of student migrants and their resiliency amid the simultaneous rise of anti-Asian racism, instrumentalization of international students by Canadian institutions, and growing xenophobia in public discourse regarding international students and their integration into Canadian society. Dedicated to understanding the connections between the experiences of student migrants and other Canadian realities, including settler colonialism, racism, sexism, classism and ableism, the RAIS Collective and its individual members are committed to advocating for better support for student migrants, within universities, in the media and through activism.

The RAIS Collective is composed of Firrisaa Abdulkarim, Elizabeth Buckner, Elic Chan, Soma Chatterjee, Ann H. Kim, Eun Gi Kim, Yifan Liu, Sophie Xiaoyi Liu, Yazhi Luo, Marie-Odile Magnan, Jean Michel Montsion, Ajay Parasram, Shirin Shahrokni, Roberta Soares and Lori Wilkinson.

Chapter 1: Benefitting Canada: The Recruitment and Retention of International Students
Chapter 2: The Double Exploitation of the International Student as an Administrative Category
Chapter 3: Overlooked by EDI: International Students and Equity Issues
Chapter 4: From Services to Relationships: Rethinking International Student Support
Chapter 5: Racializing Student Migrants: Experiences and Strategies in Coping with Racism
Chapter 6: Feeling Like Outsiders Together: Stories of Integration and Building Connections
Chapter 7: Student Migration from Asia to Canada Post–2023: Warnings and the Road Ahead