“They were banking their future upon him completing his degree in Australia and gaining permanent residency.”

Yeah. So he could send money out of Australia. Overseas students should (and once did) study in Australia so that they could go back home to help their developing countries and their people.

Now, overseas students study here as part of a lurk to dodge the normal immigration process. They are aided and abetted by university chancellors who think that they are running industries to make money. The figure cited by Mr. Ahmed backs this up.

We also see claims that overseas students don’t have a sufficient standard of English to pass, and that these people are given a leg-up. So, we could be getting backdoor migrants landing Australia with sub-standard professionals just so that money can be sent back to mum and dad and 16 siblings. The author does not deny this, merely referring to the idea that these back-door migrants are “one of the most vulnerable groups in our society. Tough. Tell the universities and all governments who have encouraged them to be here and stay here.

Dear Tanveer,

I found your article very moving. I do not agree with Leigh. It is no sin to be poor and to want to improve your circumstances; nor to want to help your family.

Thank you for describing the human side of our country's neoliberal policies. For some overseas students no doubt these policies do lead to hard won opportunities for a better life.

It is high time we stopped this scam and focused on the main problem, and that is this backdoor migration is increasing the cost to the rental market, because of the high demand from more and more people arriving each week from China and India.

Go to any Banks, petrol station or Doctor's surgery in Melbourne and you will find that english is the third language spoken, so good luck getting any service.

The english language school near my business has mostly Indians and Chinese, who use my public street too throw their rubbish and smoke butts on. They also block the streets talking outside and annoying my staff and customers and the flats around us.

I have no issue with Training them to get better job back home, but draw the line on this back door migration program, so allow them to get work then when they get their qualifications, send them back and make sure that some New Zealanders go as well.

Thanks Tanveer for highlighting the lives that many third world students' live in our major cities. Australia is just catching up to the rest of the Western world that has developed an immigration steam based on selling tertiary education to the thrid world and then in effect robbing developing nations of the professionals they desperatly need for developing their own economies. The money these graduates send home is a sizable source of external income to the immigrants' families but does very little to develope the infrastructure necessary for these countries to build modern societies.

Thanks Tanveer
I would like a quick run down on your own ethnicity and culture as I am not 100% certain who is speaking.
I teach English and the complexity embraced by "Indian" or "Chinese" hides a world of complexity.

There are so many issues coming out of what you wrote.

There was a recent post on washingtonpost.com emphasising that USA's sub-prime mortgage problem is being exported to Mexico and elsewhere because so many Latins work in USA and send money home. They are sending less home as the US slides into recession.
Similarly Australia is a launching-pad for many Asians (another simplified term for a whole bunch of dissimilar cultures and nations) to help their families move out of poverty into relative comfort. It should not surprise that many white Anglo-Australians feel threatened by this process- witness the success of Pauline Hanson et al.

It's also painful when overseas students have to be failed by unis concerned with standards..but that's another story

WALLABY.. r u for real ?

You seem to be forgetting just HOW MANY overseas people there are.

You appear to be an advocate for 'uncontrolled open borders' ? r u ?

If all who wished, came here..and brought their families.. and suddenly there was no work for YOU..... ya might wanna re-think your position..and don't bother applying for a job with Acoubra Pty Ltd, the would go out of business due to the new trend being saris and hijabs.

Think..b4 some clever bloke with a boomerang comes along and hurls it at you *clunk*....and ur social/political dead meat.

“They were banking their future upon him completing his degree in Australia and gaining permanent residency.”

That is a high risk strategy. Maybe they should have been more realistic in their expectations to start with.

“But what is less commented upon is that overseas students are fast becoming one of the most vulnerable groups in our society.”

They know the terms of their temporary membership to this society before they arrive, they are individually responsible for managing the expectations they and their families might place upon them.

“Ask any petrol station attendant, a car wash worker or taxi driver and there is a good chance that they are an international student”

I recall pumping petrol prior to acquiring my professional credentials, it is what most students do who do not have wealthy parents.

“For me, there was the difficult decision by my parents decades ago to board a plane and start a new life in an unknown land.”

Every migrant to Australia has walked that path.

I guess you have summed it up pretty well Leigh.

As for exams and the pressure to pass. That is nothing new, one of my lecturers had been an examiner and would receive papers from overseas students advising how they were desperately in need to pass the exam because their village in (say) Africa were relying on it. He failed them every time, pointing out if they had actually tried to answer the paper they might have passed.

Another colleague of mine teaches psychology and was regularly being told by students that she was expected to pass them because of the fees they had paid. She too ignored the subtle intimidation and maintained her professional objectivity and thus preserved her reputation.

Then we have the students who buy a paper degree from some bonko website and parade themselves as being appropriately endorsed.

A lot of folk are out to cheat the system, the only defense any organization has to retain its standards and reputation is to resist all attempts to defraud the stated standards.

A great article that aptly describes the parlous situation of underprivaleged overseas students and the main reason why they are here.
What concerns me most is there is never a suggestion by anyone to improve the outcome for the student, their homecountry and Australia. The whole population thing is made out to be the students fault and all the bile from anti "others" is left festering with no sollution.
When do we start to look at the "holistic" picture instead of just us? The only way out of this mire is to help third world countries get the same level of amenity, quality of life and choice we have in Australia. This will never happen while Australias population continues to rise. We have to demonstrate that a reduction in population is the only way to success.
Sure, all the education you like, especially for women and send them all back home with stories of what life can be like which gives them something to aim for.
Third world countries need all the help they can get and us stealing their best and brightest will never solve their problem or ours.