International Student STORIES: Global Flows of Education, Labour & Dreams

STORY 10 (We Know Where We’ve Come From – Jeremiah’s Story by Dr. Stephen Ney)

Moving from home countries to host countries, settling down from coast to coast; here, we offer Stories from International Students in Canada.  These are students’ voices and may echo your own experience.  Even though they may not be known personally (names are protected for privacy), we invite you to hear: why they chose Canada to study, how they have worked to build new lives here, the ways in which they contribute and make a difference both at home and here, and significantly, how their lives cross paths with Jesus Christ.

In his second year of university, Jeremiah, who is from Ghana, is majoring in Computer Science.  Although Canada was not his first choice to pursue his education and it seems to be an unsocial space, Jeremiah is often reminded by the people from his family and home community about knowing “where we’ve come from”.  Tuning in to Jeremiah’s story, let’s listen to his voice to know where he is from and who is carrying him in this journey.

STORY 10 – We Know Where We’ve Come From, Jeremiah’s Story by Dr. Stephen Ney

Let’s not assume that the words that sustain and guide international students in Canada are primarily those they hear from neighbours, church members, professors, classmates, or research collaborators. Their ears may be attuned to voices that their hosts or their host country know nothing of. And despite all the convenience that digital communications provide for international students, many of the formative voices I’m talking about are the voices that resonate in the memory, not the headphones.

Computer Science student Jeremiah is in the second year of his Bachelor of Science at a small Canadian university and he is doing well. “God has been very good to me.” He told me about his life and Canada and about the words that sustain him. 

He left his native Ghana late in 2024, when he was 19, to embark on this course of study, but Canada hadn’t been his first choice. First, he had tried to secure a visa to play football in the UK, then a study visa for the US, and the pursuit of a visa to go abroad had eaten up several years of his life. “You never know when the sun is going to shine,” he told me, “So you have to try every opportunity you can.” 

Starting life over again in Canada, without any friends or family, was difficult. He is thankful for a church near the campus but they honestly haven’t been like a family to him.  He has never felt so alone as here in Canada. This wasn’t a problem at first, when survival took all his strength and all his time. But after he got into a routine, the loneliness got heavier, especially when seemingly he never even saw the people who were living in the same house. Canada seems like such an unsocial country. People leave home only for work or church, then rush back home. But Jeremiah is getting used to it, getting stronger. And he is sustained by his home community back in Ghana. They prepared him in advance with sayings like, “No matter what happens, just keep moving.” 

With that in mind, Jeremiah arrived with a strong sense of his identity.  As his people say, “We know where we’ve come from.”  The trials haven’t shaken his identity.

Jeremiah told me it’s also hard to get used to how expensive everything is. His parents send money when they can, but the transfer expenses are so high. He pays tuition in installments; He looked for work and was willing to try anything, no matter his experience or his known skills, not knowing “when the sun is going to shine.” Respecting the legal limit of working up to 24 hours per week for international students in Canada, Jeremiah eventually found work supporting Canadians with disabilities and had to learn something completely new on the fly, which is exactly what he likes doing: “Try every opportunity you can.” 

I asked him how recent policy shifts in Canada have affected him. Jeremiah says he was told before coming that things were getting harder, so he had not been unaware that he would be forbidden to work full-time to pay for his studies. But the challenge of finding work has added to the sense that Canadians aren’t always open to him. Because of his race and colour, he is sometimes treated differently, but family members had warned him of this.  Jeremiah’s dad had lived in Europe so he empathizes with Jeremiah: “Though we struggle we’ve seen worse.” His dad continues to give him good advice and plenty of encouragement. Generally speaking, his family, far from Canada, is his main support. What they told him and continue to tell him when he’s discouraged is that:

“This is a test; we’ll pass it.” 

And what they also say unfailingly, what resonates in his ears, is this: 

“Never forget your God.” 

“God is the way, the truth, and the life, the beginning and the end.”

“No matter how tough it gets, just get down on your knees.”

Those are some of the words Jeremiah carries and gladly shared with the writer of this story. So in general he isn’t discouraged. He knows where he’s come from and he knows who’s carrying him.

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