During the 2020–2021 academic year, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America, the University of Toronto conducted some classes through dual-delivery, which meant students could choose to attend class in-person or virtually through Zoom. This allowed for international students to return to Canada in preparation for a new but precarious school year. But after just a few weeks of school, the alarming spike in COVID-19 cases made it far too dangerous to continue classes in-person, and classes all shifted to online delivery methods, leaving many international students stranded.
At last, after nearly two school years of online learning, universities all over North America announced their plans on reopening campuses to in-person learning—this time employing numerous measures to ensure the safety of students. Among these measures, requiring proof of vaccination for students stands out as one that could inconvenience students coming from areas lacking in vaccine distribution. The Strand interviewed three international students coming from India, Brazil, and the United States to see how their experiences with travel and returning to campus compared.
Students one and two are third-year students from India and Brazil, respectively. Student three is a first-year student from the US, so the questions provided were more concerned with evaluating the University’s ability to communicate with students throughout the process of entering Canada.
The Strand: Were there any issues in your home country or with Canadian policies in 2021 that made travel to Canada difficult? How has the vaccine policy impacted you? Did vaccine distribution in your home country enable or hinder you from returning?
Student One: Canada has a flight ban from India right now, which makes traveling really difficult. Not only are there no direct flights from India, but I’m also supposed to get a COVID test from a country that’s not India to travel here, which eliminates basically every route possible. I think it’s a very devious policy that not only made it extremely difficult for lots of people to get here, but also displaced the burden of dealing with potentially-[COVID-19]-positive people onto countries [with less COVID infrastructure] rather than taking responsibility for people they’ve issued visas to or [who] have citizenships [in Canada].
Student Two: Vaccinations for people my age (18-20) started pretty late in Brazil, so it wasn’t easy to book tickets to come back to Canada. Most flights available were either connections through Mexico or the United States. Nevertheless, travelling through Mexico would require me to spend one whole month in isolation: I’d have to quarantine in Mexico and Toronto. The quarantining costs would be almost as expensive as the ticket, and all that time in isolation would’ve taken a toll on my mental health. The other option, travelling through the US, was also not feasible. Since they were only accepting fully-vaccinated people and I only had my first dose, they simply wouldn’t allow me in the country even though I was just taking a connection flight. Since I could find no tickets, I thought my only option was coming to Toronto after the first month of classes or after getting my two vaccine shots in Brazil (which would not be soon). However, I was able to book tickets to Portugal, and from there, I got another flight to Toronto. It was way more expensive than US-connection flights, but I had no other choice. Travelling back was very stressful as each country has different laws and COVID travel restrictions, and despite the information available online, most things are still unclear/uncertain. At one point, I was told I wouldn’t be able to enter Portugal because, due to COVID, they were only accepting students going to school there. Another officer told me I could go in since I was going to school in Canada, and, therefore, my travel was classified as “essential.” In the end, I made it back, but I wasn’t sure I’d make it here for most of the time.
Student Three: It’s expensive to travel to Canada right now because we have to pay for a $150 test each time and if my family comes to visit, that really adds up!
TS: Was the University clear and prompt communicating the information you needed to travel to Canada and come to campus? Were there any stresses that could have been solved with better communication?
S3: I do not think that the information was super clear on if I would need to quarantine and where I would if I needed to. I think part of this was that, relatively close to the start of the school year, Canada decided to let vaccinated people from the US come without quarantining. However, I think direct communication from the school on what I needed to do (as an international student) in terms of quarantine before arriving at campus would be helpful. Especially because in an email it said that I needed to quarantine given the government’s rules but if I followed the government’s rules I didn’t need to quarantine.
TS: Overall, was your experience coming back to Toronto in 2021 better or worse than in 2020?
S1: It was definitely way easier in 2020 than in 2021 even though we were much more uncertain about how COVID worked and what we can do to safeguard against it. There were a lot less barriers and roadblocks to getting here. Both the travels were marked by a lot of anxiety and unsurety. 2021 just posed a lot more roadblocks. I think that situation I was in was an exception––different than ones others were in, because I got my first dose in Canada. It was Pfizer and obviously there was no way to get Pfizer back in India, so I had to get AstraZeneca and there was some ambiguity as to whether it’d be accepted or not. But thankfully Canada has a vaccine mixing policy, so I was able to get vaccinated and have that be accepted. But I’m in a strange position now where a lot of other countries don’t accept my mix of vaccines, including India, so even though I’m fully vaccinated in Canada, I’m not recognized as fully vaccinated in a lot of other countries––that would definitely pose problems. Travelling back home or traveling to a different country puts me in an acute position as to whether I should get another dose.
S2: I just came back, but so far, it has been better! It feels nice to reunite with friends I haven’t met in person for so long and see things closer to normality. Being on campus, going to classes, and seeing other students feels like more of a university experience than what I had last year.
