Events & Issues
New Delhi, 25 January 2010
India & Australia
STUDENTS’ SAFETY ENDANGERS TIES
By Prakash Nanda
Australia’s High Commissioner
to India, Peter Varghese, is the first foreign ambassador of Indian origin posted in
New Delhi. That
the 54-year-old diplomat has done well in life after moving home from India and Kenya
suggests that Australia is a great multi-cultural and democratic country. However,
Varghese must be really embarrassed to hear his country being accused, all over
India, of racism against
Indian students in Melbourne, Sydney
and Adelaide.
The hype in the Indian media over the
racial attacks on Indian students in Australia would suggest that
thousands of our students have been victims of such attacks over the past two
years. This is not true. As has been revealed in Parliament recently
by our foreign minister, the recorded number of such attacks is 105,
though it would have gone up in the last few days.
Presently, Indian students number 119,000 in Australia and
account for 19 per cent of its total international intake. In fact, Australia has overtaken Britain as the
second-most important destination for Indian students studying abroad. The
number one destination is the United
States. Also, India
contributes the majority share of the A$15.5 billion (US$14.33 billion) revenue
that Australia
earns annually from foreign students.
With the Indian media hyping the attacks, Varghese openly
admits that there could be a decline in the number of Indian students going to Australia.
Although a decline is predicted, it may not be as high as 40 per cent, as
feared in some circles. The big question is: Is Australia really turning
racist? Against the backdrop of increasing attacks on Indian students, a
leading Indian tabloid has caricatured the Australian police as similar to the
Ku Klux Klan. Quoting recent studies, some left-oriented intellectuals have
alleged that racism is a problem in Australia.
Apparently, a 10-year study undertaken in 1998 by Professor
Kevin Dunn and Associate Professors Jim Forrest and Rogelia Pe-Pua found that
one in 10 Australians believe that some races are superior to others. The
study, titled "Challenging Racism: The Anti-Racism Research Project,"
interviewed 12,500 people over almost a decade. It says that 85 per cent of
Australians feel that racial discrimination is rampant in the country, with one in five being a victim
of verbal abuse.
But then, such dastardly feelings are also found in many
other countries. Stray racist attacks occur quite frequently in the United Kingdom, Germany,
France, Russia
and many African and Gulf countries. Therefore, to call Australia a racist country, as is said in some quarters in India, may be a bit too harsh.
A dispassionate look at the recent attacks on Indian
students reveals some distinct patterns that are not exactly racist. First, the
attacks have been on students and not on long-term residents working as skilled
professionals. According to the 2006 census, the Indian community in Australia totaled about 234,000, of which
147,000 were born in India
and the rest have Indian ancestry. This number is estimated to have gone up to about 300,000 presently.
In addition, there are a sizeable number of people of Indian origin from
countries such as Fiji, Malaysia, Kenya
and South Africa.
Indians contribute significantly to the Australian economy,
as teachers, doctors, accountants, engineers and information technology
professionals. In fact, India is now the third-largest source of immigrants to Australia, after the United
Kingdom and New Zealand, and the second-largest
source of skilled professionals.
Secondly, as was revealed during attacks on Indian students
last June, the attackers were a polyglot mix, reflecting the streets – whites,
Asian, Middle Eastern, Aboriginal and Pacific Islander. In one case, the
alleged assailant was of "Middle Eastern appearance." In another
incident, a young offender described as “Aboriginal” committed the attack.
The ethnicity of the attackers thus varies from crime to
crime. The Australian police are not far from the truth when they describe the
attacks as largely motivated by opportunity because Indian students work late
at night, live in low-cost and usually crime-prone neighbourhoods, and are
regarded as soft targets. Many students in Australia and their parents who are
personally known to this writer share this point.
It is worth noting that many Indian students in Australia use
their student visas as a foothold into the job market of a developed nation and
their eventual settlement and citizenship in the country. While those pursuing higher
courses in medicine, engineering, business management, post-graduate and higher
research are easily absorbed, students pursuing so-called diplomas in seemingly
academic courses, actually semi-skilled areas, draw the locals’ ire.
The latter categories of students are actually migrants
desirous of working as taxi drivers, carpenters and attendants in shops and
hotels. Most do not mix with locals and live in virtual ghettoes, something
that does not go well with the local population. In fact, last fortnight Foreign
Minister S.M. Krishna made a pertinent comment on Australia’s moneymaking education
industry. “One can understand students going there at the university level, at
the IIT level or at the level of some other institution of excellence. When I
went there, I was shocked to see so many students in courses they don’t need to
go to Australia
for — such as learning hair-styling or doing facials.”
Obviously, all those who go for courses such as hair styling
and facials have some other aim in Australia. They are prepared to
work for much less pay in jobs that lower-educated and semi-skilled Australians
do, causing the latter loss of income and loss of job opportunities.
Naturally, in a bid to scare away existing and future
students from India,
the locals target them. Here, the reputation of Indians as comparatively less
aggressive, for fear that any complications will affect their visa status,
makes them easy targets. However, all this does not mean that Australian
authorities have done enough to prevent the recurrence of such attacks. Why is it that one does not hear of similar incidents
involving Chinese students, who number more than 120,000 in the country? Krishna has a point when he says, “We will not tolerate
it anymore” and be forced “to look to other ways.”
But what can New
Delhi do? One option is to create hurdles for the students aspiring to study in
Australia, something that
will surely hurt Australia’s
booming education sector. Unintended, the unfortunate development has, however,
the potential to strain the overall Indo-Australian ties, which, of late, have
been in good shape. Thanks to Australian exports of minerals and other
resources to India and China, a
full-fledged recession was avoided last year.
As Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd revealed in New Delhi during his visit last November, India and Australia have decided to elevate
their relationship to a formal strategic partnership with a new security
agreement keeping in mind the larger Asia-Pacific picture. Indeed, recurring
attacks on Indian students could make a dent in that endeavor.--- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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