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Middle Eastern Female

International students have immigration fears

Participant 1: I know people who are international students; and they wouldn’t want to say anything, because it happened from a Canadian and they felt like, I don't know how to state it, but [I feel like] they assume that [Canadians have more authority].
Facilitator: No, that is a great point. So international students have immigration fears in terms of authority and everything, yes.
Participant 2: I was actually going to bring up the same question [...]. I believe it should be clearer, especially for international students, because we don’t want to get in trouble, because it can impact our future, you know, immigration. That’s basically the same question. I’ve had a couple of people coming to me and actually saying that it happened to them. They felt the same thing.

Recommendations

  • Address legal concerns specific to international students, including whether reporting sexual assault could impact the immigration and/or visa status of the complainant or respondent. These issues should be addressed both in the policy itself and in educational materials and information sessions.