Store manager in Sydney says she's inundated by international students desperate for work

A store manager in Sydney, N.S., says large numbers of international students from Cape Breton University (CBU) are flooding her with resumes and heartbreaking stories about their desperate searches for housing and jobs.

Tasha Myers, who runs the Hallmark card store at the Mayflower Mall near the university, says it's difficult having to tell students on a daily basis there are no job openings.

Myers and franchise owner Liam Vance both say CBU and its agents overseas need to do a better job of providing students with realistic expectations for housing and work.

"I had a student yesterday come in telling me that her recruiter just full-out lied to her saying that the opportunities are crazy and that housing is the best and there's so many jobs and then she got here and it was the complete opposite," said Myers.

Myers said she gets up to a dozen resumes a day when it's slow and up to 20 or more on a busier day and it's been that way since the store opened a year ago.

She keeps a stack of resumes behind the counter and regularly has to get rid of them when the pile gets too big.

Overrun with resumes

"We do let them leave their resumes behind and they stack up to the point where we can't even manage them in a drawer anymore," Myers said.

"Just in the last couple of days we have at least, I don't know, 60."

The worst part is having the students break down and tell Myers their troubles, she said.

"Every day we're having people come in who are angry, who are sad, who are depressed beyond," Myers said.

"The tears are coming down their eyes as you tell them no and it takes a lot out of you as a human being. It really does.

"It's upsetting to see the way things are going. It's upsetting to see how many people are struggling, how many people who are coming from a different country with nothing and not even a job."

Vance owns other Hallmark franchises in addition to the one in Sydney and said his stores in Truro, Halifax and Saint John, N.B., don't have the same problem.

He said CBU has obviously struggled with the rapid increase in its student population and should do better.

But he also said the federal government has to step in to help the students.

"Ultimately, it comes down to government action, because they're the ones that are permitting them to come into the country," said Vance.

Victor Tomiczek, CBU's director of international recruiting, said the first page of the acceptance letter tells students that jobs and housing are scarce and they should start their search for those before they leave home.

He also said recruiters are told to provide the same message in person to prospective students overseas.

Large international student population

"We have a zero-tolerance policy for any partner that disregards this training or this ethical behaviour and there is no second chance if anyone is caught being a bad actor on behalf of CBU," Tomiczek said.

Last year, CBU had more than 7,000 students and about 70 per cent were international. The university had 3,300 students in 2018.

Tomiczek said recruiters are paid on a commission basis, which is similar for all universities and colleges looking for students overseas.

Staff from CBU even went to India this summer to train recruiters and to ensure they are up to ethical standards.

"While we can't guarantee or have ears and eyes in every office across the globe where we operate, we do our utmost to ensure that anybody that works with CBU is going to remain ethical and honest in representing our university," he said.

With classes starting this week, Tomiczek declined to say what the estimated enrolment is, saying that number will be finalized by mid-October.

However, he said, the university's goal is to "stabilize" enrolment at 7,000 students, with no more than 60 per cent of them being international students, by 2027.

The federal government says it is reviewing the international student program across the country and is looking at ways to reduce fraud and what it calls "perverse incentives" in the system.

'Threats to integrity of the system'

Aissa Diop, spokesperson for the federal minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, said international students are important to communities and the economy, but abuses in the system exist.

Canada currently has about 800,000 international students and that has created a system worth more than $20 billion and plenty of "lucrative financial opportunity," she said.

The department is not targeting anyone specifically, but is working with provinces and post-secondary institutions to find ways to reward those doing a good job and to hold others accountable for better student outcomes, Diop said.

The review will include "difficult conversations with the provinces around the threats to the integrity of the system," she said.