Heated debate and foreign students

An otherwise nice get together at Binayak's was
dominiated by the debate on whether the Australian
govt policy on foreign students was fair.
On one side was Anup and Sanjiv arguing for it,
on the other hand myself and slightly, Binayak against.
It got heated in the middle and personal sometimes.
I wish it did not happen but probably its not unhealthy
to have discussions as well..hope everybody takes
it positively. At least it goes on to show we are not
bunch of dumb binge drinkers.




My argument was fairly on ethical grounds, and
based on what I have observed here. To see the
students, specially the Asians, struggle like paid
laborers in Middle east and Korea, it seems hard
for me to beleive that the govt is doing truly enough.
Though the students already agree to terms when
they first come here, and the govt allows them with
multitude of facilities, the life here is extremely harsh
for them. Limited to 20 hrs per week, unavailability
of any reasonable job other than washing dishes and
cleaning buildings and floors, they are virtually shut
outside from the job market and they are full fee
paying students actually paying many times more
than the local students. Handicapped, they need
to turn to their poor families home for further support.
My point is, govt can and should do more, without
having to put any extra strain on the national economy.
Anup and Sanjiv were saying that the Aus govt is
generous enough already..well well..its a pure cash
cow industry, the students business, being the third
largets contributor of revenues while the students
who clean up the dishes and city itself live in
constant financial misery, threat from the
immigration, sqeezed up with high costs of transportation,
living, food and so forth.