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It's no secret that international students have struggled in recent years to find employment that meets the financial demands of living in Canada.
It's a situation that has led to long lines at local businesses looking to hire, and long lines at local food banks and support programs.
Now, with the federal government poised to cut the number of hours international students can work each week by half, local business experts are warning it could become a a catastrophic situation.
Just over six months ago, two international students from India moved to Cambridge to study business at Conestoga College. What they didn't know is that they would be living together in a single bedroom, unable to find jobs to afford basic necessities.
The two students agreed to speak with CambridgeToday last week, but only if we withheld their names over fears about being deported or getting into trouble with the college and immigration.
"I feel like we were misled about coming here," said one of the students, we'll call Simon. "We have to wait in two kilometre long lines just to hand in a resume for a job we probably won't get."
The students explained the feeling of coming to another country and not being able to support themselves as "scary and demoralizing."
After trying for six months, Simon was finally able to land a part-time job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant but had his share of struggles getting the position.
"We would get hired for two week training, unpaid and then they would fire us so they wouldn't have to pay us," he said. "How is this fair? We take the jobs thinking we will get hired and work two weeks for free?"
Simon's experience is so common that the Ontario government passed legislation this week that explicitly prohibits any businesses from the practice of bringing in workers for unpaid training periods before they're hired.
CEO for the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Greg Durocher said this practice among many others are a way to take advantage of international students.
"The government rarely knows what they're actually doing and when they make more changes to the amount of hours these students can work, it's going to get real bad," Durocher said.
During the pandemic, the federal government bumped up the number of hours international students could work each week from 20 to 40 hours.
With changes effective Dec. 31, these students will again only be allowed to work 20 hours a week, a move Durocher thinks will be a catastrophe.
"There will be entire companies who lose complete shifts. I don't think they understand how bad this will be," he said. "I know of at least one factory that will lose its entire overnight shift."
Cambridge MP Bryan May said the federal government's plan to bring the permitted working hours for international students back to pre pandemic levels has been in the works since the program started.
"This was always going to be a temporary thing while school was out due to the pandemic," May said. "I know there are organizations in some of these countries that are taking advantage of students, but the institutions need to make sure that who they are giving acceptance letters too, can sustain themselves here in Canada."
May thinks the responsibility is on colleges and other post secondary institutions to properly vet those who are being admitted and to accurately describe the landscape of housing, employment and other factors that could affect their daily life.
To be an international student in Canada, the federal government requires students to have at least $10,000 in their bank accounts to cover basic living expenses when coming here to study. It's an amount some feel is far below what is required in the wake of inflation and demand for housing.
The second student CambridgeToday spoke with, John, admitted he had to get a loan to make sure he had the money in his account to pass the government checks.
May said if students have to get loans or try to fool the government system into thinking they have enough money, then when they come to Canada, they will not have enough money to survive.
"In this case this would be fraud," May said. "We need to make sure that the students coming over here are being truthful and making sure they can pay for things like rent and food."
According to the Cambridge MP, the federal government is reviewing the way international students come into the country and have implemented "enhanced verification" systems to help put pressure on schools and recruiters in other countries.
Durocher wants to see what he calls an arbitrary number of working hours done away with to allow students to work enough to sustain themselves.
"So they cut these hours and then what," asked Durocher. "They will lose their housing that is already hard to find and they add to the homeless population. It doesn't seem like it's in the best interest to limit these kids from working."
John and his group of friends, also students from India, are constantly accessing services like the Trinity Community Table in Cambridge to eat hot meals and take food home with them.
"We are really grateful to be here, but it is tough to live like this. We want to stay in Canada and get our permanent residency, but sometimes we feel trapped," he said.
