Learning Opportunities: International Students and Lessons About Education, Immigration and Cultural Diversity On and Off the (Atlantic) Canadian Campus

Abstract

This paper explores Canada’s accelerated expansion of international university enrollments from the perspective of 72 international students and graduates from 29 countries, who participated in semi-structured interviews conducted in the four provincial capitals of Canada’s Atlantic region. Addressing the emerging campus diversity and incoming students’ immigration potential, this research illustrates that students encounter campus dynamics and immigration policy landscapes shaped by long-spanning histories of race and ethnic relations, by current multi-scalar iterations of economic development, and by regional reorganizations of immigration and higher education in Canada. In turn, the ways students experience and negotiate their positions within these contexts is directed by multigenerational projects of geographic and social mobility, to include key lessons learned about the possibility of long-term settlement in Canada. Set in less populous urban centers in Canada’s Atlantic provinces, the outcomes reported here also provide an opportunity to explore international students’ experiences outside Canada’s large metropolitan areas and more predictable sites of education internationalization.