They are the first to greet — or shall we say scrutinize – travellers entering the country, assigned the task of guarding Canada from security and safety threats.

Other summer students toil in retail and restaurant jobs, but Jag Rai and Jienezza May Alquinto are on the front lines of international defence, screening passengers during the busiest travel season.

The two are among 900 summer students hired across Canada by the Canada Border Services Agency, including 170 from the Toronto area.

All are trained to try and detect illegal migrants, drug smugglers, terrorists, and the ordinary traveller sneaking in a banned chunk of cheese.

About 100 student border services officers or BSOs, including Rai and Alquinto, work out of Pearson International where their job is to keep the crowds moving and refer “subjects of interest” for further inspection by veteran officers.

Alquinto, 20, said the common refrain from people about her summer job is ‘Wow, how do you get that?’ She likens the job to being a guard at one’s own home.

“You want to know why they are coming in, what goods they are bringing in and whether they are going to create any havoc in your house,” said Alquinto, a third-year business major at Ryerson University.

Each student – recruited through the Federal Student Work Experience Program established in 1990 – attends four weeks of training in late spring and completes the program at the end of August. They undergo a rigorous background check, and learn about 90 pieces of laws and regulations ranging from immigration and food safety to criminal acts.

They are not at liberty to divulge details of their intense training. However, the students say they are trained to pick up “certain demeanours” in travellers, although most incidents occur with people trying to avoid tax and duty on items purchased abroad, and often look like they are trying to hide something.

These so-called demeanours vary from culture to culture, said border officer Catalina Garcia, who joined the department as a summer student five years ago. For example, a person born and raised in Canada avoiding eye contact could be a person with something to hide, but the same demeanour could be the norm for someone arriving from Asia, she said.

“We have to understand their culture, not their colour,” said Garcia, 27, who became full-time after graduating from Ryerson’s master program in immigration settlement in 2008.

Also, people sometimes get the impression a certain culture is being singled out when a group from the same ethnicity is referred for further inspection. But it is typically because they have just arrived off a flight from the same country, she explained.

Rai, 21, a criminology major at York University, said it is not always easy to deal with tired and irritable passengers who are stopped for inspection after a 12-hour flight.

“Once you explain the legislation and your role, they are fine with it,” he said.

Multiple languages in this job are a plus. Rai, Alquinto and Garcia all speak other languages – Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi for Rai; Tagalog and Spanish for Alquinto; and Spanish and Italian for Garcia.

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Even the knowledge of a single word in a foreign language – “kon kosa” means tourist in Japanese, “kana” means food in Urdu, and “kielbasa” is sausage in Polish — can help ease people’s nerves, said Garcia, although interpreters are available to travellers if required.

“What’s most satisfying for me is you are trying to safeguard the Canadian public in a very direct way,” said Garcia, who works at Pearson. “I take a lot of pride in my job.”

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