Shonky Australian training courses lead to PR, bashings and death

Hamish McDonald writes about The racket no one dares name in today’s Brisbane Times.

The racket? Study in Australia, with the prize of ‘PR’. (Permanent Residency)

I have personal experience of this in the case of children of 457 visa holders desperate for their families not to have to return to China. They research the occupations that DIAC says are needed in Australia and sign up for courses not with the intention to fulfill their dreams, but to win PR for themselves, and they then can sponsor their families. Chinese checked

McDonald reminds us that it used to be the case that foreign students were in fact students, not residents-in-waiting, and that if people who studied here wanted to apply for a further visa once their study was finished, they had to return home to do so. Many were accepted under this scheme.

It was the government of John Howard that introduced the current system so that graduates could apply for residency while still in Australia, and later trade courses were added to the scheme.

Mc Donald says

“Neither education providers or their student customers care about the quality of training, as long as the documentation is in order for the residency application and the cursory inspections are passed.

“In the process, Australia has been cementing a reputation for shonkiness, for making the quick bucks instead of investing in growth, and for not being really interested in India except to make money out of it.”

And now Australia is working hard to tell India that we really really care about their children studying here. New plan aims to stop foreign student attacks

While they are bashed, and disproportionate numbers commit suicide. More suicides uncovered among overseas students