<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/23/at-the-brink-how-international-students-in-australia-are-ending-up-homeless-and-hungry>
"When Juliën Lubeek received a scholarship to complete his PhD at a prestigious
Australian institution, he didn’t expect to be homeless and living through a
pandemic.
After Covid delays forced him to extend his submission date at the end of 2021,
his scholarship of $1,128 a fortnight ran out. For the next eight months, the
international student experienced bouts of homelessness and of being unable to
afford rent or food.
International students could not access government support during the pandemic
but were allowed to work up to 40 hours a week. But Lubeek said working this
much was “impossible” while studying full-time.
“Although I had a casual job, this wasn’t enough [to] cover rent, living
expenses, transportation, overseas health insurance, medication, food,” he
said. “International students are considered cash cows, not humans.”
International students are going hungry at an alarming rate and more support is
needed to help them manage while in Australia, new research has found.
The Monash University report, provided exclusively to
Guardian Australia,
surveyed more than 60 international students in Melbourne last year and found
they were being burdened by the rising cost of living, prohibitive transport
costs and the difficulty of juggling study and work commitments.
There are 182,000 international students currently living in Melbourne,
representing almost 40% of Victoria’s entire university population.
The report found almost half those surveyed experienced food insecurity –
triple the rate of the wider population."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
