Canada Held the Door Open for International Students. Then Slammed It in Their Face | The Walrus

"Being a queer, non-binary person in India is not the easiest," Adi Khaitan told me. "The place I grew up was very, very conservative."

""I struggled a lot," they said. "I've gotten death threats from where I'm from." "It gets scary," they said. "Now I'm more used to ad hominem attacks, but I wasn't used to it earlier."

""That's when I got into migrant organizing," they said, "both for my personal struggles and constantly hearing about the lack of equity and social justice that exists."

A queer, non-binary person from a conservative Indian hometown experienced trauma and received a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Thirty North American universities accepted them; they chose Memorial University of Newfoundland over U.S. offers because of political concerns. Parents agreed to pay tuition if other expenses were self-covered. Coming out in Canada led to death threats from their country of origin and the need to close social media accounts. Repeated online harassment and precarity among migrant students motivated involvement in migrant organizing and activism focused on equity and social justice.

Read at The Walrus