How many international students do you all know or came across personally before coming up all the assumptions mentioned here (I call it assumption because no one provided reference to claims or mentioned personal experiences).
Education up to year 12 is fully funded by government as long as you attend a public school. Infrastructure wise Australian public schools has nearly same infrastructure that private schools will have in other countries especially throughout Asia.
Many TAFE courses are also paid for by the governments (google FREETAFE program).
It is different thing that many who comes on international student visa may have better skills in certain streams just because locally I find we lack teaching those skills in early years. How many local kids you know who can give you change back if they didn't have POS in front of them. I would say education system from last 2 decades has been letting local kids down by not providing basic skills to a level that they should. That is a different topic on its own so will not go too deep into it for now.
International students have to show funds for all their education in advance in bank account along with living expense before visa is granted. These funds has to exist for long so that there is no dodgy stuff going on.
If it was not for international students, most universities will not even have the infrastructure they have currently and whatever happened to HECS in recent days would have happened more than a decade ago.
As others suggested they do not get a free ticket, they pay 3-4 times than a local student, do not even qualify for basics like concession card for travel and then also contribute to Australian society by paying taxes on anything they earn, when they buy from local stores and renting. Even if they need to see a doctor have to have private health insurance which does not cover 100% of the cost most of time. Usually there is out of pocket expense when they see a doctor. They qualify for none of the social benefits so they are not a stress to any kind of benefits.
For those who speak about international students getting residency, they have to go through many checks and requirements to get it. Then again we do not question if someone comes from UK, Europe and US. Usually international students from Asia and South east Asia are the ones who gets picked up on. When these students becomes residents, just like you and I they also pay taxes. They do not get any free hand. Most of them work really hard to progress. For an instance when most people used to visit centerlink for benefits, how many did you come access that you recognize that they would have been international students earlier? If you will ever pull the figures, you will be surprised.
You accept it or not, international students has been the one of the main pillars of Australian economy for more than 2 decades. Try removing billions of dollars per year from the economy every year and you will soon realise that is their worth.
Australia was already on its way to loose jobs when free trade agreements kicked in and since 90s manufacturing started to go overseas. If you want to blame someone for jobs and other things it is the profit seeking corporation, politicians and local unions are to blame. Some examples will include:
- Privatization of basic amenities and giving corporations free hand on increasing tariffs. - Banks to be given free hand on interest rates and many other things. - Unions pushing for contracts to be in a way that their officials will benefit and project costs will go out of room. What do you think corps will do when their project costs will go out of roof? Find any way to save money which comes at cost of outsourcing or importing labour.
Enough for today I think!
Disclaimer: An international student from 2 decades back who went to Monash University back then, kids attend public schools and pay fair bit of taxes. So I am not just assuming the things, I been though this whole thing.
