Indian students will be most affected by tighter policies on Australian visas.
Australia’s tough immigration stance has been welcomed by many Indian media sources who admit that although it will make it harder for Indian students to get into Australia, it will “separate the wheat from the chaff”.
The CEO of Oceanic Consultants Naresh Gulati held a press conference in which he welcomed the changes introduced by the Australian Government, especially in weeding out the bogus colleges and Universities that promise students permanent residency in return for studying one of their courses and paying thousands in fees.
He also recognised the stricter rules on English language requirements. Foreign students studying vocational courses must now score a minimum of 6.0 on each section of the IELTS test instead of the previous 5.0. He claimed that this will stop students from applying for second-rate courses merely to gain residency into Australia and will encourage them instead to choose a course more in keeping with their career aspirations.
The online Indian newspaper DNA India (Daily News and Analysis) also welcomed the changes, claiming that the ‘back door’ entry that many students took to get into Australia was partly to blame for the surge in attacks.
They claim that many poorer students from rural areas were using this ‘back door’ method (choosing a vocational course that went easy on English language requirements) to try and gain permanent residency. Many were taken in by bogus colleges and further exploited by companies wanting cheap labour from abroad.
These students often ended up housed in crime-ridden, deprived areas of the city which made them vulnerable, the newspaper claimed, to attacks. “The gradual reduction in number of Indians making the crossing under false pretences – and putting their lives at risk – should lead to a reduction in incidents of ‘racial’ attacks.”
The Rupee News blog also featured the story and agreed that the visa changes were necessary to stop abuse of Australian immigration laws: “The Indians had a good deal in Australia, and all this nonsensical protesting has destroyed their access to a good education and a good opportunities (sic) to help their paychecks.”
However some authorities are claiming that the Australian visa restrictions will spell disaster for Australia’s education market which has already taken a battering in the wake of the high profile attacks on Indian students.
Bubbly Johar is the vice-president of the Association for Australian Education Representatives in India. He has warned of a significant decrease in student applicants for Australia that will only get worse with the new changes. He claims that the tough immigration laws will further affect public relations and that students will be discouraged from applying to study in Australia.
Overseas students are the ones most affected by the latest changes in the Australian immigration regulations and many who have chosen vocational courses such as hairdressing, will now have to find an employer to sponsor them if they stand any chance of staying in Australia.
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2 Responses to “Australian Immigration Changes Good News for Indian Students”
Comment by Josh — April 26, 2010 @ 5:35 am
“entry that many students took to get into Australia was partly to blame for the surge in attacks.” – To myself, the India media seems increasingly open-minded and fair in judgment. Good on them! These kinds of things usually get driven by the left-wing as purely racist occurrences that reflect the thinking of all Australians. This article made me really happy
Comment by John Sailer — July 15, 2010 @ 7:55 pm
Stop Indian and china migration – these people do not integrate into the Oz society. All they want is permanant residency so they can take jobs from australians – driving taxis and being security guards. They are lazy, fake and uninterested in being part of the socity and show patriotism for Australia. More migrants should come form UK, Eastern Europe etc… as these people will make life in Australia a pleasure. These comments are not racist they are merely a reflection of the true community sentiments that people are scared to voice because any comments about slowing migration and lack of integration by current migrants are seen as racicst. They are not, open debate is important in setting a direction for the nation. Australia should be a happy and great place to live, not one where people are scared to walk out onto the streets – where students get attacked because of their race and then europeans have to feat reprisals from groups of 5-10 indian and pakistani students who walk around at night – of course conversing in a non english language as learning that language is not really important – just permanant residency….