Is a ‘broken’ visa system fuelling anti-Indian sentiment?

A reported surge in this year’s enrolment of overseas students, particularly from India and Nepal, helped to fuel anti-Indian sentiment in large anti-immigration rallies across Australia at the end of August, with protesters claiming “Indians” were flooding the country, exacerbating a housing crisis and taking away jobs.

The SBS network reporting from Melbourne said Indian students stayed off the streets during the recent protests, fearing physical attacks. Parents back home, who largely fund their education, became agitated about their children’s safety after seeing the protests on television.

“Our family back home [is] worried about our safety … and told us to stay indoors,” University of Melbourne masters student Varada Nair told SBS. “There was someone who came and started throwing stones at us, calling on us to go home.”

Shadow over the brand

Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia chair Peter Doukas told SBS international students have felt especially targeted in recent times.

“These incidents occurring around the country will cast a shadow over the brand of Australia as a safe place for international students to study,” he said. “International students have been scapegoated for, among many things, the property prices and other economic issues, which they're not responsible for.”

In the 2023 to 2024 financial year, temporary students were the largest group of migrant arrivals at 207,000 people, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

In the same period, international education contributed AU$51 billion (US$33.59 billion) to the Australian economy – AU$30.2 billion paid as goods and services and AU$20.6 billion paid as tuition fees. Education exports are Australia's fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas, and the largest services export.

India’s Business Standard newspaper, in an article on 5 September, argued that “Indians power the economy, not flood it”.

Jordan Tew, a Melbourne-based immigration specialist, told the newspaper that Indians make up 17% of international students, the second largest cohort. With a large migrant intake via the skilled migration programme, Indian migrants are “central” to the system and are not straining it, he is quoted as saying.

“They are working as nurses, doctors, teachers and IT professionals and supporting universities and their communities across the country. The narrative of blame misses the bigger truth: Indian students and workers are not overwhelming Australia; they are helping it to thrive.”

Earlier this year, in the lead-up to the new academic year, there were public allegations that educational and labour recruiting agents were manipulating the system to bring in illegal migrants.

Minimal support

Writing in the international education news website koala.com earlier this year, Ewen Hollingsworth, co-founder of Spark Finance, an Australian fintech company that provides financial assistance for international students, claimed that the Australian government treats international students as ATMs and does little to include support systems for them.

“In 2023, Australia increased the minimum savings required for a student visa by 17% … to AU$24,505. Then, in 2024, we doubled down with a 125% hike in student visa fees to US$1,600 – making them amongst the highest globally,” he said.

Hollingsworth argued that international students keep regional universities open, support small businesses, and help sustain Australia’s higher education system “in the face of domestic enrolment decline”.

There has been concern in the media here that foreign students, particularly from India and Nepal, are bringing their family members to work in Australia, undermining government (and opposition) policies aimed at bringing the migrant numbers down to stem a public housing crisis in the urban areas.

Under a scheme known as “485 visas”, family members are allowed to work in Australia up to 48 hours a fortnight, and so are students.

“Australian governments and universities actively promote education in India and Nepal along with permanent residency pathways. On the other hand, students are unfairly blamed for broader systemic issues like housing – issues that existed long before their arrival,” noted Dr Amit Sarwal, founding convenor of the Australia-India Interdisciplinary Research Network.

He told University World News that most Nepali students come to study and work in the hospitality industry. “For them, it’s a way to use their prior experience and get to work in their field quickly, thus sending money home to support their families.”

South Asian community leader and social entrepreneur Ash Gholkar says that most Indian and Nepali students come to Australia to enjoy the safe and clean environment, as well as the opportunities available to work (due to Australia’s skills shortage).

He added that for Nepalis there is the added issue of the economic instability following the major earthquake there in 2015, as well as the current political turmoil.

Gholkar argues that since Australia has a declining population problem with a threat of many rural communities closing down due to a lack of people to work in farms and mines, “it is common sense to make sure that those who are potentially going to be future citizens and residents of this country come along with their families”.

He told University World News he drove 3,000 kilometres from Cairns through the interior of Queensland to Sydney in January, and it was amazing to see Indians and Nepalis living in mining and farming communities, operating services and working in the farming, retail and cleaning sectors.

“While they are studying, thanks to the government allowing remote study, online lectures and so on, they are working in these areas that otherwise will be closed.

“They are working in areas that are underserviced, that Australians don't want to work in,” he said.

Group of Eight (G8) CEO Vicki Thomson told University World News the network’s universities are stringent in their enrolment processes, and thus such activities would not impact on the integrity of their institutions.

“[We get] precisely the high-quality international students Australia needs to attract and retain to find solutions to the pressing challenges we face as a society and to build a sustainable workforce,” she said.

A ‘broken’ system

Back in April, Australian authorities raised the alarm over a surge in “non-genuine” student applications, cases in which education was not the primary intent but a façade for residency ambitions or unauthorised employment.

“If there is intention to complete your education legitimately and then work for the purpose of permanent residence, there isn’t anything wrong with that,” Aman Gupta, head of SAARI Collective, a South Asian community media network in Melbourne, told University World News. “Right now, it seems to be a bit broken, where the system can take advantage of disadvantaged students or the students find loopholes to take advantage of a ‘broken’ system.

“The system needs to support the needs and requirements of an individual that comes here to study but also to live,” he argued.

“However, once that education is complete, their pathway to permanent residency or back home needs to be clear and should not be exploited by either students or the system.”