International Students Horror Stories

Internationalising education in Australia is the third or fourth largest export industry, varying with the price of gold at any one time (Marginson 2012). It is seen as an evolutionary money-making sector that has grown exponentially over the years totalling to A$19 billion a year and is subsequently an educational and social experience for the international students in Australia. With that, decisions by parents to send their child over to Australia to study in the past decade has wavered because of all the media attention concentrated on the safety of these students.

Australia is a peaceful country with its significant value of mateship, fair-go and true blue experience. Once upon a time it was the dream country to study in, but with the recent cases of international student being the victim of theft, robbery and even murder, parents are starting to think twice about sending their child over to study abroad. Issues such as the universities and colleges not paying enough attention to these international students and their safety are increasingly being publicise. Some cases are forced to argue that students are not taking enough precautions to prevent these incidents from happening.

Take the Garg case for example, Nitin Garg, 21 years old studying Bachelor of Accountancy in Melbourne was murdered while he was heading to Hungry Jacks to work his night shift (Welch, D 2010). Autopsy shows he got stabbed with a knife wound across his chest and died on the way to the hospital. This was a turning point for Indian international students and the larger international communities. Presses in India was furious with the treatment their citizens were receiving.

On the one hand, arguments from another Indian student also named Nitin states that the crime has nothing to do with the victim’s ethnic background protested, “I think, mate, I think crime is bloody everywhere. Go to any country and you’ll find crime” (Welch, D 2010). And on the other hand, a young Muslim Indian named Syed suggested “The Government is not taking any action and the police also don’t care. The persons are getting attacked day by day and no action is being taken.” (Welch, D 2010). Other theories from Welch states, “Indian students are seen as a “soft targets” and “walking ATMs” because of their flexibility to work night shifts and perception of their wealthy backgrounds” (2010). Authorities from AIC emphasised that the current study does not allow for conclusions to be drawn regarding the role of racial motivation in these crimes (AIC 2011, p. 169).

International students are often perceived to be from a rich background because of their ability to study abroad even with the high currency exchange rate. Because of their living-away-from-home conditions, perpetrator of crimes usually target these students because of their vulnerability of living alone. However, facts be told, crimes happen all around the world, to prosecute Australia alone is a biased judgement, we must view these students as strong and brave because moving to a whole new country all alone is a difficult process, all with fitting in and getting accustom to a new culture, feelings of rejection and alienation are struggled throughout the process.   

Reference:

Larsen, Payne & Tomison 2011, Crimes against international students in Australia: 2005-09, Australian Institute of Crimes, Canberra, accessed 31 August 2014, http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/5/C/2/%7B5C2C2F3E-584B-498E-A694-A25FC8FC7C86%7Dcaisa.pdf

Marginson, S (2012) ‘International education as self-formation: Morphing a profit-making business into an intercultural experience’ Lecture delivered at the University of Wollongong, 21 February 2012, available online at http://focusonteaching.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@cedir/documents/doc/uow119828.pdf

Welch, D 2010, Horror Indian summer, The Sydney Morning Herald, weblog post, 9 January, viewed 31 August 2014, http://www.smh.com.au/national/horror-indian-summer-20100108-lyw0.html

Globalisation: We Are The World

(source: progressivechristiaity.org)

Globalisation, to put simply, makes up every aspect of our lives, from checking the weather forecast in the morning, making a freshly roasted cup of coffee to typing up this very blog post, it involved some sort of globalisation traits. It is an international community influenced by technological development and economic, political and military interests characterised by interdependence, interactivity, interconnectedness, and the virtually instantaneous exchange of information. (Khorana 2014)

Helen & Kean (2002) found the birth of globalisation started as far back as the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo first started trade routes in spices and Christopher Columbus in Tobacco. Then on, it grew and evolved to the mid 1800s up to the World Wars with start-ups in infrastructures, technological advancement and world trade boomed. The great depression sent countries protecting their economies and financial status and from 1945, globalisation stabilised and continues to flourish until today.

Globalisation has many positive and negative effects, whether they cancels each other out is still a mystery yet to be solved. It is undeniable that globalisation has allowed countries to freely trade goods and services encouraging worldwide competitions and boosting the economies. Consumers and the market benefits from the increase in consumer choices and the profit margins of countries. Information are able to travel to their destination instantaneously at the click of a button, this availability of information almost immediately increases production and efficiency. Advances in technologies raises the standard of living and quality of life while increasing investments worldwide

However, where there is success, there is repercussions. The downside of globalisation shows unfair trade practices, wealthier countries have more accessed to education and information allowing them to monopolise the poorer country’s economy. Comparing a third world country to a wealthy country, small business in the third world country would never be able to expand their trading because of the domination of multinational company. Their inability to invest in technology because of their financial status lowers their productivity and efficiency. Investors in wealthier easily outsource their labour markets to these third world countries to take advantage of their cheap labour wages and skills availability.

As the saying goes, the richer gets richer and the poorer gets poorer. In order to reduce and eradicate this inequality, perspectives on globalisation should change, whereby globalisation should be harnessed for the benefit of the world’s citizen, trade liberation should be encouraged and governments are in place to provide stability for the market. Globalisation should be used for poverty reduction. Organisations such a World Vision are In place to challenge those unjust structures which prevents the poor to flourish in the worldwide economy. Our perspectives of globalisation should be that the citizens of earth strives to live in peace and harmony, helping out one another, because we are the host on earth, and it is everyone’s responsibility regardless.  

 Reference:

Khorana, S 2014, ‘BCM111: International Media and Communication’, powerpoint slides, BCM111, University of Wollongong, delivered 6 July 2014.

Ryman & Kean, H 2002, Globalisation: the poor must come first, World Vision internal paper, delivered June 2002, <http://www.worldvision.com.au/Libraries/3_3_1_Aid_Trade_and_MDGs_PDF_reports/Globalisation_The_Poor_Must_Come_First.pdf> 

Appadurai, A (1996) ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’ Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 27-47

O’Shaughnessy, M and Stadler, J (2008) ‘Globalisation Media and Society (fifth edition) Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 458-471