Australia to bar foreign students from bringing partner/child while they study

Australia to bar foreign students from bringing partner/child while they study(channelnewsasia.com)

31 points by Markoff 2 days ago | 11 comments

I understand why people want to escape India but it would be better if they try to unfuck their own country. The West cannot absorb a billion refugees.

rstuart4133 1 day ago | |

> I understand why people want to escape India

That's wrong thing to try and understand. We don't have to accept anybody. As Howard said, "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come". And he achieved that. He also orchestrated the biggest proportional uptick in immigration the country has seen this or last century.

Immigration was never driven by people trying escaping India. The issue is our politicians invited them in with open arms. The irony is the very same politicians from the conservative side were pushing their "big Australia" agenda while at the same time noisily ranting against "illegal immigration" with emotive terms like "children overboard".

If you thought Howard was against immigration, you were sucked in by his outright deceptive tactics. He was the biggest immigration proponent I've seen in my lifetime. I'd give it a 50/50 chance of it working out the same way for One Nation. Their core supporters are rural and the elderly. Both are highly dependent on immigrant workers.

The right framing isn't "people escaping India", but rather how many and what type of immigrants the pollies want - because that is what determines what we get. Any politician who tells you otherwise is bullshitting you. Illegal immigration never made much of an impression on the real immigration figures.

butwhentho 1 day ago | |

India being unfucked slowly, decade by decade. A couple more, and unless multiple catastrophes happen, they won’t be moving in such numbers to Australia. Maybe more for tourism than anything else.

Outside of niche subjects, I doubt students in India of more than decent talent are considering Australia seriously for study. Talented people can make more in India in absolute terms, plus they won’t have to fight the entrenched wealth or high home prices.

We’ll get there, don’t worry.

alephnerd 1 day ago | |

Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam also have high student visa family rates in Australia. It's not just an India problem.

And a decade ago it used to be Chinese until China started a trade war with Australia [0][1].

[0] - https://theconversation.com/students-in-china-heed-their-gov...

[1] - https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/chinese-students-wil...

evolve2k 2 days ago |

Higher Education was once a top export for Australia. Not with the way this is going, with policies like these.

alephnerd 2 days ago | |

At least abroad, an Australian degree that isn't from a UNSW or Sydney tier uni isn't well regarded anyhow.

Like (eg.) RMIT or CQU doesn't open any doors in Vietnam, India, or Indonesia, but all their advertising (which often includes calling out immigration) essentially devalues the reputation of Australia's education system in those countries.

It's the same thing in Canada and the UK.

Khaine 1 day ago | |

The way they measure it as an export and quoted by the Universities is a lie. They assume that all of the money spent by the student is an export. Not taking into account any work they may do while in Australia.

toomuchtodo 1 day ago | |

It’s a cash transfer in the aggregate from those paying inflated real estate costs in rents and mortgages to the higher education industry.

alephnerd 2 days ago |

FYI PhD students are exempted from this regulation, though in all honesty Australia should just shut down degree mill and cash cow programs to nip the problem in the bud.

For example, a Masters in Project Management [0] or Information Technology [1] from CQUni that ends up costing AUD 80k-100k in tuition, fees, and living costs isn't opening any doors professionally in the old country nor in Australia.

But they won't.

Same goes for Canada and the UK.

[0] - https://www.cqu.edu.au/courses/cv84/master-of-project-manage...

[1] - https://www.cqu.edu.au/courses/cc54/master-of-information-te...

xhkkffbf 2 days ago | |

The degree mills are sad. One legit student I know was kind of depressed that a large block of students never showed up for any classes or participated in any way. They were off at jobs or whatnot.

Khaine 1 day ago | | |

They should get rid of the degree mills, but they won't. Universities should primarily focus on developing the skills. Not to say they shouldn't support international students or exchanges, just that shouldn't be a primary driver.