International Students – Australia remains cautious about reopening the borders
Throughout the pandemic, Australia’s steps of border closure, local lockdowns and quick contact tracing have worked effectively with a comparably lower infection rate and deaths worldwide.
The Australian 2021‑22 Budget released recently presents the next stage of Australia’s recovery and secure future. The budget assumes that Australia’s borders will remain closed until mid-2022, and only then the gradual return of temporary and permanent migrants is assumed to happen.
The border reopening plans have been criticised by businesses and industries. The press release by the treasurer Josh Frydenberg reveals that the government has committed $291 billion or 14.7 per cent of GDP economic support for individuals, households and businesses.
Before the lift of the border restrictions, the government will work on phased programmes allowing small numbers of international students and arrivals constrained by state and territory quarantine caps.
The migration planned levels will remain the same as last year at 160,000 with a focus on onshore skilled migrants and parent/family visa places.
The Government will invest to build new skills and training opportunities to support job seekers, school leavers through the JobTrainer Fund in order to assist industries that are lacking skilled workers. This might help the education and training providers but it is still important to allow international students to start or continue their studies in Australia. The universities and federal governments are preparing formal proposals for the government to allow students to return to their territories safely and when the conditions allow.
The international students that are currently in Australia will benefit from temporary relaxation of working hours. The student visa holders are limited to 40 working hours a fortnight. The new approach will allow those students enrolled in a healthcare-related course or those who work in the agriculture, tourism and hospitality sector to work more than 40 hours a fortnight. The students must continue their educational course and balance their study and work commitments.
The international education sector will need support by federal governments to emerge strongly and sustainably from restrictions caused by the pandemic.
