The Australian government wants to halve the number of international students coming into the country. The peak figure in 2022-23 has reached 510,000, and they want to take it down to 250,000 in the next two years, in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

The Labour government headed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese feels that the student immigration system has broken down and that too many students are entering and that the international students are necessary to keep the universities going economically and otherwise. The government of course will have its way, but it brings to the fore the dilemma at the heart of the issue.

Australian universities have been aggressively seeking student enrolment from many Asian countries because foreign students bring in the extra revenue because they pay more fees. The universities are worried that more than capping the intake of foreign students, the government would charge a higher levy from the universities and from the students, and that would pose a greater danger.

The Group of Eight, which represents the oldest universities, chief executive Vicky Thomson said, “We would be very concerned about and would absolutely reject the idea of a levy.” She argued that the universities were not-for-profit centres and that they are export-earners. The figure for export earnings from higher education sector is $30 billion per year, according to government estimates. There is the fear that government would not reinvest in education if it were to raise a levy on foreign students and from the universities.

The city administrations where the universities are located feel that there is not enough accommodation, and that rents have gone up because of the shortage of accommodation. The government wants to go about it by tightening the qualification for student visas by insisting on higher rates on fluency in English, and there will also be stricter scrutiny of second visa applications to prolong the foreign student’s stay in Australia.

Says Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, “Our strategy will bring migration numbers back to normal. But it’s not just about numbers. It’s not just about this moment and the experience of migration our country is having at this time. This is about Australia’s future.” But Australia is feeling an acute shortage of skilled labour, and the Labour government had eased their entry and facilitated their getting the permanent residency status quickly. The process for skilled workers has been restricted to a week’s time because of the competition from other developed economies.

The immigration dilemma that Australia is facing is something it shares with many of the Western countries, but with this difference. In the European countries the dwindling birth rate and ageing population have created a labour shortage. In Australia, its population is not sufficient to run a strong economy which will keep growth at a high level and increase the GDP.

For a long time, Australia followed an immigration policy which was restricted to European countries, especially from Greece, with a racist tilt to the policy. But over the last quarter century and more, Vietnamese and Chinese have found welcome in the country, and also the Lebanese from the Middle East. Of late, there has been an increase of students going to Australia for study and many others were allowed in to be part of the workforce. It looks like the Australian politicians and authorities have realised that the demographic profile of the country is changing. They know that they cannot close the doors to migrants but they want better qualified people to migrate into the country. It has to be then a calibrated policy on migration. Australia, like the mother-country, Britain, is turning into a multi-racial and multi-religious society. What holds it together is the English language, and that is why the government wants to keep the scores in language tests high so that the migrants will not face integration problems.