Expert sounds alarm over foreign students competing with Australians for jobs

A POPULATION expert says the number of foreign students in Australia is ‘mind-boggling’, raising concerns about pressure on the local job market.

Students celebrate their graduation. Picture: Tony Gough

TENS of thousands of foreign students are prolonging their stay in Australia by switching visas to become tourists, partners of local residents and even asylum seekers.

A massive 443,798 overseas students — a population the size of Canberra — were in the country as of June 30, and they all have the right to work up to 20 hours a week.

In Victoria, there were 112,234, and the top source nation was China with 33,783 students, followed by India (14,616), Malaysia (7691), Vietnam (6647), Sri Lanka (3748), Pakistan (3411) and Nepal (3332), according to Department of Immigration and Border Protection figures.

In 2016-17 across Australia about 200,000 foreign students already here got new visas, including 37,759 who transferred to the temporary graduate 485 visa allowing them to stay in Australia with full-time work rights for at least two years.

A further 39,945 former student visa holders got tourist visas, 10,685 scored the temporary skilled 457 visa, 8199 got to stay as spouses or betrothed of locals, and 864 convinced authorities that they were asylum seekers.

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Demographer Dr Bob Birrell, from the Australian Population Research Institute, said the size of the foreign student population was mind-boggling, and it was clear that most wanted to extend their stay in Australia.

“It’s obvious that the attraction to come to Australia is primarily access to our job market and ultimately to permanent residency,” he said.

“The problem is that we have acute competition in the job markets that these temporary migrants are entering, and that has a massive significance for younger Australians who are moving from school into work without formal qualifications.”

Bob Birrell is the head of The Australian Population Research Institute.

An Immigration Department spokesman said that any work undertaken by international students should be incidental to their studies and not the purpose of their stay.

“All student visa applicants are assessed against a genuine temporary entrant requirement ... an integrity measure which seeks to ensure that students come to Australia for the purpose of attaining a world-class education rather than to work or gain permanent residency,” he said.

About 48,000 student visas have been cancelled over the last three years, including for breaching work conditions and on character grounds.

In 2015, it was estimated that foreign students spent $19.2 billion in Australia on course fees, accommodation, living expenses and recreation.

Dr Birrell welcomed a recent crack down by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on the controversial 485 skilled visa, which will be abolished and the rules for temporary workers tightened.

But he said that federal authorities were dealing with a legacy of successive governments encouraging temporary entrants to stay for long periods in Australia.

As of December 31, 2016, there were 2.09 million temporary entrants here with work rights, including New Zealand citizens with special visas, foreign students, working holiday makers and temporary skilled workers.

@JMasanauskas