Cause for concern

Australia has enjoyed the image of a peaceful, laid-back multicultural democracy, one that has welcomed foreign students to pursue their studies in a developed and congenial academic environment. Sadly, that image has soured somewhat, with the recent attacks on Indian students and others. There have been allegations of racism and accusations that the Australian police were not doing enough to prevent such incidents. The boorish attacks, most of them occurring in the State of Victoria, have caused understandable concern in India. Unfortunately, they have also sparked over-the-top nationalist outrage, with effigies of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd burnt in New Delhi, Bollywood declaring that no films would be shot Down Under, and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray demanding punitive measures against Australian cricketers participating in the Indian Premier League. What emerges when the facts are analysed dispassionately is that not every assault involving an Indian has been of a racial nature. According to the Victoria police, of the 36,765 victims of robbery and assault in 2007-08, 24,000 were Caucasian. It is also reasonable to assume that Indian students constitute a soft target for assailants; a sizeable number of them work late-night shifts to finance their studies and can afford to live only in less-secure neighbourhoods.

But what is equally clear is that those in Australia who deny the existence of curry-bashing and make out that virtually every attack on Indian students is opportunistic rather than racist are engaging in a cover-up. The Victoria Police Commission has admitted that there were 1,447 cases in which Indians were victims of robbery and assault in 2007-08 (compared with 1,083 instances in 2006-07). Pointing out that its students have also been attacked in recent years, a concerned Chinese government has called for better protection for international students in Australia. Together, the Chinese (130,000) and Indians (97,000) comprise about 40 per cent of the country’s foreign student population. Mr. Rudd’s conversation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his setting up of a task force to deal with the issue of violence against foreign students suggest that Canberra is earnest about containing the malaise. International education is one of Australia’s top foreign exchange earners ($11.4 billion in 2007-08). What the federal and relevant State governments must do to preserve the image of Australia as an attractive value-for-money educational destination and a tolerant and enlightened multicultural society is to get less defensive about the attacks and more effective in providing a secure environment for foreign students.