Via the pathetic Guardian:
International students in Melbourne are bracing for more hardship after the city returned to a six-week lockdown prompted by a spike in coronavirus cases.
Melburnians who have lost work or who have been forced to close their businesses can access boosted unemployment benefits or the jobkeeper wage subsidy, but international students and other temporary visa holders are locked out of federal government assistance.
Before the pandemic, many supported themselves through part-time or casual work, an option that has become increasingly difficult after the return to stage three restrictions placed 5 million Melburnians into lockdown.
Last year Indonesian masters student John, 42, was one of about 3,500 students who received an Australian government scholarship, the Australia Award, which allowed him to take up a chemistry course at a Melbourne university.
Yet John, who did not want his real name used in case it affected his scholarship, is now unable to adequate provide food for himself, his partner and his three children.
The family, who live in Melbourne’s inner north, rely each week on emergency food relief from the Kasih project, a community organisation that has been providing care packages and winter clothing to international students since late March.
He said the $1,100-a-fortnight Australia Award scholarship covered his rent, but he had very little left over to cover food for the family.
I feel for John but let’s face it, he is an example of what has gone horribly wrong in the international students sector.
International students are supposed to be a profitable export. The conditions of entry include the financial capacity to support yourself for a year.
What is the point of having an international students export sector that either has to work to supplement incomes, crushing wages. Or, in times of crisis, has to lean on charity to survive? By definition, they’re displacing locals in need. And will compete fiercely for what jobs are available with unemployment Aussie youth, the hardest hit segment of COVID-19.
The truth is international students are not much an “export” at the best for times. They are a part of the immigration Ponzi-system that keeps asset prices high and wages low, ruining standards of living for the young and working people. When they become a drain on public and private charitable support then their economic value turns purely negative.
It’s nothing personal but if John can’t support himself with his scholarship then he should go home. He can finish his degree online. This is not cruelty. It is basic personal responsibility and a part of the contract he signed when coming here in the first place.
The Guardian should go with him.
