Renata has been busy, at SBS and the ABC:
Renata Tavares Silva is an unemployed student living in Sydney.
But unlike her Australian counterparts who can rely on a government safety net, the international student from Brazil is on her own.
“[I’m] simply terrified, each way you look you feel like ‘I don’t have anywhere to go’,” she told SBS News.
The 27-year-old has lived in Australia for two years and has almost completed her master’s degree in digital management at Kaplan Business School.
She had been working at a hotel in Sydney to support herself but when COVID-19 hit and occupancy rates dropped, she was shown the door.
“This year when I’m about to finish school, I simply lose my job, how will I survive?” she said.
Renata hasn’t found any work since and is now dependent on her partner’s income.
As she discovered, the desperation to regain employment exposes the more than two million people on temporary visas to a greater risk of exploitation.
She says she was asked to do a trial at a cafe in Sydney only to be told she was expected to stay and work for five hours for free.
“She said, ‘hey if you pass the trial I can pay you $17 hourly’ and it just made me realise I had to leave that place,” she said.
The minimum wage in Australia is $19.84 per hour. Renata has since reported the business to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
But wage theft is only part of the problem.
A nationwide survey of more than 5,000 temporary visa holders – 67 per cent of them on a student visa – paints a devastating picture of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conducted by Unions NSW between March and May and released on Monday, it found 65 per cent of respondents had lost their job (60 per cent for international students) and 39 per cent didn’t have enough money to cover basic living expenses.
I don’t want to be mean about it but if Renata cannot support herself then she should go home. What is being exposed here is that the responsibilities that come with being an international student do not all land on the host nation.
Amid COVID-19, the Australian government’s responsibility is to its citizens first, both to supply jobs through stimulus, and to ensure a decent standard of living through decent wages.
Renata’s ongoing presence hampers both as she adds to a huge output gap and immense unemployment.
Foreign workers of any kind that find themselves unemployed will need to rely upon their own governments for support. If that means going home then so be it.
That is the way of the national system of government.
