New report says persistent racism remains problem for Australia
Updated
It's estimated around three-million people worldwide study outside their home country. In Australia, the number of foreign students has risen from around one-hundred-thousand to half a million, over a ten year period. Now, a new Australian report has found disturbing evidence that overseas students' human rights are routinely neglected. The study was prepared at a recent workshop called "Racism and the Student Experience", co-sponsored by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Presenter: Corinne Podger
Speakers: Graeme Innes, Australian Human Rights Commissioner
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PODGER: It's just over a year since thousands of Indian students protested in the Australian city of Melbourne, furious over a spate of violent attacks on Indians in which at least one man died. As police and government officials continue to develop new policies in response, Australian academics have also weighed in on the issue of foreign student safety. A research paper's been prepared at a workshop of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and Universities Australia. Noting that foreign students have a human right to personal security, non-discrimination, adequate housing and information, the workshop heard that's often not the case. Australian Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes.
INNES: When students come here from overseas, they leave their citizenship rights at home. Now I'm not suggesting that we ought to be providing equivalent rights, but we ought to be looking at students as visitors and as people who are entitled to a more equal level of respect, rather than just as consumers of the education product.
PODGER: The research workshop surveyed more than 200 foreign students, and conducted an overview of current policy. It found foreigners don't get the same deal as local students on a host of services, including healthcare and public transport concessions. Graeme Innes says there's also a lack of awareness or willingness to comply with Australian laws on wages and accommodation, among employers and landlords.
INNES: We heard lots of instances from students of students being paid lower than standard wages, being paid cash in hand, expected to work for quite incredibly low rates of pay. Therefore that means that the standard of accommodation they can afford is less, and we also heard instances of accommodation standards which we would expect to occur in Australia just not being applied, so incredible numbers of people sharing rooms in houses and double bunking, or hot-bedding as it was put, so three or four students sharing a couple of beds and taking different times of the day to sleep in them. So I think as well as some policy changes, there's also a level of awareness of their rights by students, and also greater enforcement of those rights.
PODGER: Graeme Innes says policies to deal with these issues as crimes are being refined, but says a fresh look at the security of foreign students from a human rights perspective is needed.
INNES: I think one of the things Australia has lacked for the last ten or so years is a strong multicultural policy and a strong anti-racism policy, and I think demonstrating stronger leadership on these sorts of issues, would reinforce amongst Australian society the importance of not making distinctions in terms of how rights are applied and how they're enforced. So one of the things the statement from the workshop calls for, is that we should have a clear multicultural policy and an anti-racism policy put in place by our national government.
PODGER: Multiculturalism has been a cornerstone Australian policy since the 1970s, when it was introduced in what the Department of Immigration calls a direct response to the winding down of the White Australia policy. But the Australian Human Rights Commission says some of that momentum's been lost, and that Canberra has a bigger challenge on its hands than simply boosting awareness about what's fair, and what's not, under Australian law when it comes to foreign students. The Commission says there's enough evidence now to call for a renewed focus on addressing racial inequality and intolerance in Australia, with a firmer focus on human rights for all.