International students must be protected from exploitation

Fee-paying students are often taken for a ride by employers. Government and providers must co-operate to end this.

Illustration: Sturt Krygsman

The vexed issue of international student workplace exploitation is attracting a great deal of attention.

With a reputation for being fair-minded and having a strong industrial relations system, Australia needs to continue to offer a high-quality study and living experience for our international students. Employers, education providers, governments, education agents and the students themselves need to work together to address this.

However, it is a complex systemic issue and it is not helpful to focus on just one element of the problem, as some commentators recently have done.

Contrary to media commentary by some high-profile politicians, Australia is not alone in offering part-time paid work opportunities to tuition-fee-paying international students. In fact, most of the study destination countries we compete against provide almost identical work rights.

Canada and New Zealand go even further by offering migration pathways through education. North America also has a longstanding culture of offering either unpaid or low-paying internships to both domestic and international students.

In contrast, our industrial relations system requires award rates of pay, unless that work experience provides academic credit points. Working in Australia provides these students with invaluable employment experience as well as an opportunity to participate in our wider community.

Unfortunately, as recent experience has shown, certain employers continue to work around the system and take advantage of students’ lack of information and desperation for income. Making examples of large employers such as 7-Eleven through significant financial penalties has yet to offer sufficient disincentive for others to change their behaviour.

It is time for a strong criminal code to be applied to employers who are proved manifestly guilty of exploiting vulnerable students.

In all of this, what is less understood is the proliferation of same-culture workplace exploitation. In too many cases, authorities are finding that a Chinese-Australian, Indian-Australian or other migrant background employer takes advantage of a student from their own culture by underpaying them.

This practice is often camouflaged by establishing an interdependent relationship whereby “Uncle Ranjit” or “Aunty Chang” offer to mentor and “assist” the student in other ways.

In cases of cultural coercion, we need to put pressure on all levels of government to work with our migrant communities to better educate them in workplace responsibilities and to highlight examples that will act as genuine deterrents.

Our education providers must also have a prominent role in both educating and counselling their overseas students. It is the education provider who seeks out the full-fee-paying student to study at their institution. They should not abrogate their responsibility to ensure that each student is provided with comprehensive information regarding their work rights, at their orientation and subsequently. Proactive counselling on a range of student life issues can assist in demystifying and clarifying the Australian context.

The vast majority of our fee-paying international students choose Australia through the ­advice and referral of offshore education agents.

It behoves our gov­ernments and the enrolling education providers to ensure ag­ents are not exaggerating the course-related work opportunities that may be available for the student on arrival.

Equally, we need to empower and support international students to feel safe to speak up against workplace injustice. The recent “Wage Theft in Australia” report from the University of NSW and the University of Technology Sydney as well as Council of International Students Australia student surveys have highlighted that almost half of surveyed students were aware that they were being exploited, but this is not reflected in the number of complaints made.

This suggests amnesties for reporting employer exploitation to the Fair Work Ombudsman are only working to a limited degree.

The Council for International Education will soon release a package of actions to support work already being done by many stakeholders in the international education sector. The council is convened by the Australian government and includes sector leaders and key government agencies.

One idea being developed is to work with the popular international student study hubs in our capital and regional cities as a focus for students to learn about their rights and redress. We need to better understand why students under-report before we impose ill-conceived solutions.

As we attempt to effectively tackle this vexed issue, perhaps the best starting point is for government and education providers to send a strong message by publicly calling out unscrupulous employers at every opportunity we can.

Phil Honeywood is chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia.