Speaking out for international students

On the 21st of October, a rally to oppose the Labor government’s changes to student visas took place outside the University of Wollongong’s library.

The changes limit the amount of visa applications the government will take, prevent international students from bringing their family into the country, and restrict international students from changing their degrees.

Noticeably, an international student who wished to speak at the rally did not show up for fear of their visa being put under scrutiny. Ryan Chapman was more than happy to speak up on their behalf.

“We came to Australia with dreams of a better future, leaving behind our families, friends, and homes,” Mr Chapman said, relaying the speech the international student had prepared for him to read out.

“We invested our savings, our time, and our hope in the belief that education in Australia would open the doors to new opportunities.

“However, frequent visa changes have left many international students feeling anxious, disappointed, and uncertain about their futures.

“Behind every student visa is a human being who have made enormous sacrifices just to be here.

“We understand Australia has the right to change its immigration policies but we ask that the government reconsider, to consider the impact of the students who have already invested so much under the previous rules.

“We are not asking for guaranteed permanent residency, we are asking for fairness, transparency, reasonable transitional arrangements, and the opportunity to plan our futures without constant fear and uncertainty.”

Ryan Chapman went on to speak on his own behalf, highlighting the current state of the government’s treatment of migrants.

“It just goes to show how punitive the government can be towards international students, where they don’t even feel like they can have the political rights to stand up and say what they want from their own heart,” Mr Chapman said.

“They’re left out to dry by the government who just see them as economic numbers, as cash cows to be in our universities, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the universities so they can rake in their profits.

“We have to completely reject the logic that actually keeps them in that position, we have to get rid of the visa system entirely, allow the free migration of anyone wherever they can because that is a goddamn human right.”

The Environment Representative of the Wollongong Undergraduate Student Association, Antony Tzamouranis, spoke on the culture of scapegoating the government has adopted.

“There are many moments where a government must decide what kind of country it wishes to create; a government can choose hope over fear, solidarity over division, confidence over insecurity,” Mr Tzamouranis said.

“Or it can choose to look for easy targets, easy headlines, easy polls, and easy scapegoats.

“When politicians cannot, or refuse to solve structural problems, they search for visible groups to blame.

“Because it is easier for governments to blame migrants than build housing, it is easier to scapegoat students than reform universities, it is easier to exploit fear than confront the structural causes of inequality.”

Mr Tzamouranis also spoke on how the cost of student visas have more than tripled since 2024, from $710 to $2,500. He called for politics built on solidarity rather than exclusion, to build something better instead of looking for a group to blame.

WUSA’s Education Officer Simon Upitis also called out the mainstream media’s complicity in exacerbating the fear of migrants.

“The media helps them, they’ve been churning out every bit of fake news, of quote unquote evidence showing that migrants are causing the housing crisis, causing house prices to go up,” Mr Upitis said.

“Nevermind the banks that are making record profits off high interest rates or the property developers that keep apartment blocks empty to jack up prices.”

He went on to highlight the double standard given and benefits that domestic students get to enjoy that international students are denied.

“International students get almost no support from the government, if you’re a domestic student you’re entitled to Job Seeker, Youth Allowance or Austudy, but international students receive none of these,” he said.

“We’re opposed to scapegoating of migrants and all minority groups and we need to fight the far right racist politics that are being normalised right now.”