Synopsis
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 — various 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.
About the Author
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 . Firrisaa Jamal Abdulkarim is a PhD candidate in sociology with a strong interdisciplinary foundation, holding master’s degrees in both economics and sociology, and a BSc in psychology with a minor in economics from York University. His research focuses on the intersection of race, inequality, and education, with particular attention to structural barriers in educational systems and pathways into STEM. As a research assistant, he has contributed to several large-scale projects involving administrative and longitudinal data, policy analysis, and mixed-methods approaches. He brings a deep commitment to equity-driven research shaped by both academic training and community-based experience. He has worked locally and internationally on initiatives focused on youth development, educational access, and systemic change. Firrisaa Jamal is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Dr. Elizabeth Buckner is an associate professor of higher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, where she also holds the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Higher Education for Global Sustainable Development. Her research examines how global trends affect higher education, in particular trends such as private higher education, internationalization and sustainable development. Dr. Buckner is a major contributor to the research literature in the field of higher education, comparative education and comparative higher education. She has published in many of the top journals in sociology of education (Sociology of Education, British Journal of Sociology of Education); comparative education (Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, International Journal of Educational Development); and comparative higher education (Higher Education, Minerva). Elizabeth is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Dr. Elic Chan is a lecturer and researcher in sociology at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on the social and economic integration of Asian Canadians and their experiences across Canadian cities. His work has been published in International Migration Review, Journal of International Migration and Integration, City & Community, and Comparative and International Education. Beyond his research, Dr. Chan has taught more than 60 university-level courses at both private and public postsecondary institutions, with a focus on programs designed for international students. Elic is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Soma Chatterjee is an associate professor in the School of Social Work, York University, where she holds an associate membership in the graduate program of interdisciplinary studies. She is a multidisciplinary scholar of migration/mobility and anti-racist politics in their generative intersections with Indigenous sovereignty and state practices of Indigenous recognition and reconciliation. Her research stands at the disciplinary intersections of sociology, social work, Indigenous and Native studies, education (adult and higher education) and migration and diaspora studies. Her scholarly trajectory took shape in the context of her personal experience of migration and resettlement and subsequent community development and health promotion experience with immigrant and refugee populations in Toronto. Soma is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Ann H. Kim is an associate professor of sociology at York University, faculty associate of the York Centre for Asian Research, and current director of the Korean Office for Research and Education. She studies migration, race and ethnicity, and urban sociology, and has a long-standing interest in Korean studies. She is co-editor of three books, Korean Immigrants in Canada: Perspectives on Migration, Integration, and the Family (University of Toronto Press 2012), Outward and Upward Mobilities: International Students, Their Families and Structuring Institutions (University of Toronto Press 2019), and International Students from Asia in Canadian Universities: Institutional Challenges at the Intersection of Internationalization, Racialization, and Inclusion (Routledge 2024). Ann H. is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Eun Gi (Cathy) Kim is a PhD candidate in higher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Her research interests centre on educational equity, internationalization, and student voice and explores the experiences of Korean immigrant and international students in Canadian postsecondary institutions, with a focus on their support systems and peer interactions. Her commitment to understanding and supporting diverse student learning needs began during her teacher education and has been deeply shaped by her experiences as a Korean immigrant and first-generation graduate student in Canada. She is co-president of the East Asian Special Interest Group at OISE and a board member of the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. Eun Gi (Cathy) is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Yifan Liu is a PhD candidate in social justice education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, with a collaborative specialization in diaspora and transnational studies. Her research interests include sociology of education, youth mobilities and (im)migration, Chinese and Asian diaspora, and ethnocultural and linguistic diversity in education. Her recent work engages critically with international student mobility, focusing on how transnationalism, racialization, family contexts, and institutional structures shape students’ education experiences and constructions of belonging across transnational spaces. She co-founded and co-chairs the UofT China Education Forum, fostering cross-cultural and international education exchanges. Yifan is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Sophie Xiaoyi Liu is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of British Columbia, specializing in the sociology of law and in race and migration. She examines how knowledge of and experiences with the law shape the ways marginalized groups engage with legal practices in the North American context. Her work draws on a range of methodologies, including in-depth interviews, survey experiments, and content analysis. Sophie Xiaoyi is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Yazhi (Isabelle) Luo is a research coordinator at the University of Manitoba. She completed her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in sociology at the University of Manitoba. Her general research interests lie in racism and migration studies. Yazhi (Isabelle) is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Marie-Odile Magnan is a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the Université de Montréal. She is director of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) Inclusion and Ethnocultural Diversity in Education team. Her research, recognized internationally for its impact on the transformation of education institutions, focuses on equity, diversity and inclusion policies and practices of education staff, as well as on academic inequalities from primary to postsecondary education, as recounted by young people and staff from racialized groups. Marie-Odile is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Jean Michel Montsion is a professor in the Department of Global and Social Studies at Glendon College, and director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University. A specialist of gateway cities, he is interested in the consequences of the international mobility of goods and people on city life, with a focus on community politics. He has published in venues such as Canadian Geographer, Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Urban Studies. He co-edited a collection titled International Students from Asia in Canadian Universities: Institutional Challenges at the Intersection of Internationalization, Inclusion and Racialization (Routledge 2024). Jean Michel is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Ajay Parasram is a transnational, multigenerational byproduct of the British empire. He is an associate professor cross appointed to the departments of International Development Studies, History, and Political Science at Dalhousie University. Ajay’s research surrounds themes of the “colonial present” or how historical colonial entanglements such as colonial state formation and the calcification of structures like race, gender, class, and caste in the last four centuries continue to limit the possibility of collective liberation. He is currently researching the political economy of “improvement” and the morality of capitalism and colonialism in the mid-late 19th century, specifically in the imperial transition from slavery to indentureship. He is the author of Pluriversal Sovereignty and the State: Imperial Encounters in Sri Lanka which was awarded the Centre for Advanced International Theory (CAIT) Sussex International Theory Prize and the Best Book Prize by the Global Development Studies section of the International Studies Association. With Alex Khasnabish, he co-authored Frequently Asked White Questions (Fernwood Publishing, 2022) and he is currently writing a monograph for Fernwood Publishing entitled How To Talk To Your Racist Uncle expected to be published in 2026. Ajay is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Shirin Shahrokni is an associate professor of sociology at the Glendon Campus, York University and a faculty member at the Centre for Feminist Research, the York Centre for Asian Research, and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. Her research is at the intersection of race and migration politics across various geopolitical locales, specifically in France and Canada. She is the author of Higher Education and Social Mobility: Challenges and Possibilities among Descendants of North African Immigrants in France (Routledge 2021). Her current research is a multi-sited project on francophone migration in Canada outside of Quebec. She is one the co-investigators of the higher education trajectories and experiences of Asian international students ― the Racialization of Asian International Students (RAIS) project. She is also engaged in a participatory action project with students with precarious migration status in Canada. Shirin is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Roberta Soares is an assistant professor in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. She holds a PhD in education sciences from the University of Montreal and was a Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) postdoctoral fellow in sociology at the University of Ottawa. She holds a master’s in sociology and bachelors’ degrees in social sciences and business administration from Brazil. From the combination of extensive university training and work experience in Brazil and Canada, her research and pedagogy take on sociology and education from a critical standpoint to understand issues of EDI, social justice, and decolonization in relation to different social categories, namely immigration, language, and race for youth in school. Her recent work explores the experience of young immigrants learning the language of schooling in a French-speaking context in Canada in terms of education and social inequalities. Roberta is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective. Lori Wilkinson is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba. Her research centres on the economic and social outcomes of immigrants and refugees, and her projects include studies of the pandemic arrival experiences of Afghan refugees, the experiences of sexual- and gender-based violence among newcomer women, international students and their perceptions of university and life in Canada, and the pandemic outcomes of Indigenous peoples and newcomers in Canada, the US, and Mexico. Her distinctions include Canada Research Chair in Migration Futures, Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba, election as a fellow to the Royal Society of Canada, and the Metropolis Researcher of Excellence Award. For over a decade, she has served as the director of Immigration Research West, a multidisciplinary group of over 100 members who work together to educate Canadians about the contributions of newcomers. Lori is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective.
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