Australia has spent decades building an extraordinary capacity to bring some of the greatest talent from around the world to our shores. The current debate over migration – and by extension, international education – risks reducing that achievement to numbers, visas, revenue and housing, when arguably its deepest value is the multicultural society and invaluable global connections those flows create.
Federal governments past and present have long acknowledged that Australia needs skilled migration and international students to meet its workforce needs and to keep the economy moving. After all, it’s universities who are educating future health workers, engineers, tech innovators and teachers.
However, Australia’s migration and multiculturalism is not merely a demographic fact or figure of population data, it is an essential national asset that expands our country’s cultural imagination, strengthens our connections to the world, enriches everyday life, and gives Australians a distinctive identity – one that isn’t shared by one ancestry, but a civic home.
The Australian government’s managed migration policy has determined that 225,000 is the national level we need and that 295,000 new international student commencements is a sustainable level within the broader approach. Problem is, the sector is already tracking around eight per cent below that target as it tries to navigate policy changes, increased visa charges, slower visa processing times and significant visa refusals in key markets.
As global competition rises and new policy measures are placing restrictions on dependents, it will make it that much harder for learners, researchers and their families to see Australia as a genuine study and living destination. These types of policy directions are happening elsewhere in the world so in some way, it has come as no surprise.
However, besides the obvious economic impacts on skills and productivity, there is also an impact on local communities and the vibrant cultural tapestry of our nation. We are a nation, that in its modern history, has been shaped by stories of migration and people who have given us language, food and traditions, but also powerful innovation and growth and the values of belonging and acceptance.
Today, our international students are the faces across our retail, hospitality, aged care, tourism and emerging sectors. And in South Australia alone, around 30% of students and their families volunteer across the community, helping to build connections and provide services where it matters most.
Migration can be a mirror for society. When people arrive with different assumptions about family, community, work, faith and education, sometimes our values are reinforced, sometimes they are challenged, and sometimes they help us to see that there are better or different ways of doing things.
At a time when the world is retreating from globalisation and is outwardly flirting with monoculturalism, Australia must ask the difficult questions of itself about where it stands on important matters of diversity and inclusion moving forward.
Beyond cultural contributions and community vitality, international education is one of our most powerful forms of people-to-people links and diplomacy.
Young people come here, acquire and share knowledge, offer perspectives, form friendships and networks and bolster workforces. Whether they stay in Australia or take these experiences home, this reciprocal nature strengths our collective abilities and prosperity locally, regionally and around the world.
This is something I know firsthand. My father was a schoolteacher who emigrated to Australia to positively benefit lives. I grew up between Queensland and Vancouver, before later studying in Germany which changed the course of my career.
And some of my closest friends came to Australia as children and now support our health system, work with First Nations communities and drive innovation across critical sectors. These are the life-changing opportunities we are making harder to reach by closing our doors.
Australia can legitimately decide that migration levels need to change. It can change the annual intake of international students. It can tighten visa requirements. It can insist that universities provide adequate housing (which we are). And it can crack down on compliance. But none of these things require abandoning the idea that cultural diversity is an Australian strength – and necessity.
