'They started crying:' Ontario international students finding it difficult to land work
CBC
Parimal Parikh says many international students he recently interviewed for a job at his South Asian grocery store were emotional.
Parikh owns Namaste Indian Supermarket in Windsor and was looking to hire for seven positions.
"They started crying and started explaining their financial crisis and what they were facing in Windsor," he said.
"They started crying when they didn't know the answers to the questions we were asking. And we tried our best to listen to them and try to comfort them."
Parikh says he posted the hiring call out via social media, expecting 60 to 100 people to show up.
What he ended up getting was nearly 400 people, some lining up 90 minutes before the interview period began, says Parikh.
"It got a little crazy," he said.
"We started working on the backups … instead of one interviewer we had two more interviewers."
Parikh says they were able to make time to see 250 applicants and he really appreciated how patient and understanding everyone was.
"I know that might be a lot, but I didn't want them to go disappointed that they didn't even get a chance to get into the interview after standing up to three hours in the line."
According to Parikh, the work situation for many international students in Windsor is much worse than some people might think.
"When you go deep down to the roots, it's very sad right now."
Kelsey Santarossa says her heart goes out to international students who are in a financial crisis — doing their best to secure work amidst heavy competition.
The manager of community projects for Workforce WindsorEssex says there isn't a specific unemployment rate for international students, calling it a "hard subset of our population to drill right down."
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This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
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