Crowded train Station, CBD City Hall, Sydney. (photo by Australian newspaper)
Birrell (Bob Birrell), a prominent Australian demographer, said that in order to ease the "burden" of immigration on Australia`s big cities, higher English and economic requirements should be made to overseas students, rather than "fiddling" with Australia`s permanent immigration program.
Birrell reported in a new report that the influx of foreign students into Australia has surpassed other categories of immigrants, becoming Australia`s main net source of migration.
Just a month ago, Australia`s government announced a reduction in the annual permanent residence quota from one hundred and ninety thousand to one hundred and sixty thousand, but Birrell concluded that the adjustment was not a big problem because international students "are a much bigger factor in Australia`s population growth."
Birrell`s study found that international students now account for 44 percent of net immigrants, calculated by the annual differences in Australian immigration.
Foreign students accounted for 104987 of Australia`s two hundred and thirty six thousand seven hundred net immigrants in fiscal 2018; Net immigration has also outpaced other categories of immigrants, such as visitors, jobs or permanent residences, from 25,699 in 2012 to more than one hundred thousand in the previous fiscal year.
Analyzing data from Australia`s Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Home Office, Birrell found that international students were the biggest source of population growth in Sydney and Melbourne, "and therefore a major factor in the congestion crisis in the cities."
He suggested that the federal government should ease Australia`s burden of receiving immigrants, "with only one clear answer", which would reverse the relaxation of demands on foreign students in English and economic.
While Australian colleges and universities are actively seeking international students, Birrell pointed out that the relaxation of admission standards and English requirements has adversely affected the quality of higher education.
Hanniwood (Phil Honeywood), chief executive of the Australian Association of International Education (IEAA), said that Australian universities were "tired" of Birrell`s use of immigration data to attack universities and foreign students. "A report from the Ministry of the Interior and Finance last year showed that 87 percent of international students returned to their home countries, and [Birrell] his research ran counter to the report," he said.
"if 87% have returned home, I don`t know where his 44% came from."
Hanniwood also accused Mr Birrell of "taking a narrow view" of the benefits that foreign students bring to Australia`s economic growth.
Norton (Andrew Norton), director of the Grayton Institute`s (Grattan Institute) higher education program, agrees that Birrell is the largest source of net migration for international students, and that they are mostly concentrated in major cities, particularly Melbourne and Sydney, in calligraphy. But there are also some positive factors to consider.
In addition to contributing tens of billions of Australian dollars in tuition fees and living expenses, Norton said, their needs also supported a large workforce of cleanliness, unemployment and Uber (Uber) drivers.
Birrell noted that international students became the biggest driver of population growth in Sydney and Melbourne because Australia`s government relaxed its English and economic requirements in 2011, resulting in more students coming outside Australia and getting permanent residences.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the largest category of permanent residence issued by government in fiscal year 2017 was earlier holders of higher education and vocational training visas, as well as their spouses or family members, with 42541 people, or 22 percent of the total number of permanent residence visas that year.
After Peter Dutton, the home-affairs minister, tightened some rules last year, the proportion of students receiving permanent residency fell slightly to 18.7 percent.
Foreign students come to Australia for different Chinese students to return to China
Birrell also found that since 2011, the number of students studying from Australian cities has increased significantly, and there are `two distinct markets`.
One is the "Chinese market". Chinese students attend Australia`s G8 research university, which costs as much as 40, 000 or more a year. Unlike in the past, as China`s rich class grew, most Chinese students returned to the country after completing their studies because their education and experience in English-speaking countries provided them with a good path to employment. There are good employment prospects in China.
Foreign student visas granted to China`s citizen doubled from 22638 to 47794 between 2013 and last year, according to ABS.
The second market is the Indian Sub-mainland Market, which consists of a large number of Indian, Nepalese, Pakistani and Sri Lankan students. They attend non-G8 universities, paying about A $20, 000 a year for courses in business, management and IT.
Student visas to students in the countries soared from 14110 to 51305 over the same period, according to ABS.
Birrell believes that the main attraction for these South Asian students is access to the Australian labour market and the possibility of a permanent residence in Australia.
It is said that international students often apply for 485 visas when their earlier visas expire and seek permanent residence during their stay in Australia.
Last year alone, 46711 overseas students were granted visas.
