International students are having trouble finding work. The youth employment rate is hovering at around 12 to 13 per cent, and many of the hundreds of thousands of young people who arrived in Canada over the last few years are struggling.
Mohammad Khosravani came to Canada from Iran on a full scholarship to study machine learning and artificial intelligence at Lakehead University. He had high hopes at first but now that he’s graduated, he can’t get a job. He has applied to dozens of roles with no luck. He’s not sure if he should take a minimum-wage gig or move to the United States to access more job opportunities in his field. And he’s running out of money.
“Many immigrant students in my department, including a few from Iran, are also struggling to find jobs in their field,” he writes in Maclean’s. His story reflects a common experience this spring. “I was offered a scholarship to get an education here, but now that I’m at the critical stage of launching my career, I can’t give back. I feel like I’ve been cut adrift.”
–Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
