Well, it pays to be polite and respectful to adapt your way of behaving when you are in a different culture or society, especially when in Australia, do as the Australians do.
People Down Under are peace-loving and totally above board, and even a stray incident of violence, or an isolated case of fraudulent transaction for that matter involving immigrants can backfire or put the Australian authorities off. And it appears that students from Punjab and Haryana are at the receiving end of this strict rule Down Under, thanks to the violence that broke out between Khalistani activists and pro-India demonstrators at Melbourne’s Federation Square in January-end this year. These Indian students are also bearing the brunt of indulging in fraud at the behest of unscrupulous travel agents who convince them to submit fake financial and educational qualification documents while applying for study abroad (in Australia).
Owing to huge shortage of skilled workers in several fields, including health, teaching, agriculture, ICT, etc., the Australian government had recently extended post-study work visas – from two years to four years for different degrees. This will not only benefit a large number of Indian students who are on the verge of completing their studies there but also several fresh aspirants applying under these courses now.
But the experts dealing with “study in Australia” say that fresh students from Punjab and Haryana may not get the benefit of these new rules because the Australian government has taken a tough stand against “student applications” from Punjab and Haryana, particularly post-Covid-19. According to the Australian government, the post-study visas have been extended from two years to four years for select bachelor degrees, three years to five years for select master’s degrees, and four years to six years for all doctoral programmes.
“There is a huge rush from Punjab to Australia, and students are getting visas too, but still visas of several deserving students are being rejected without rhyme or reason – the only apparent reason being they belong to Punjab and Haryana. One applicant from Punjab for the nursing course who had scored 9 in each band in Pearson Test of English (PTE), which is accepted by educational institutes around the world, who did well in mandatory reading, writing, listening and speaking skill tests, and who scored 95% marks in medical stream from CBSE faced rejection from Australian government for study visa and there was no reason mentioned for the rejection,” Chitresh Dhawan, Australian education visa expert, who has around three decades’ of experience in educational consultancy said, adding that now one can imagine why it happened. Warning students from Punjab and Haryana, he said that in any country where they go either for study, job or any other purpose, they should behave as per the rules of that country.
The visa of this brilliant student was rejected post-Melbourne incident, which had created a bad impression about the students from Punjab, he added. At Melbourne’s Federation Square in January-end this year, scores of Khalistani activists had gathered to vote in a non-binding referendum demanding a separate Sikh state. Things went a bit out of hand when Indian diaspora against this vote came with national flags to the voting site. Australian media reported that two people were injured and as many Sikh men were detained when two separate brawls broke out between Khalistani activists and pro-India demonstrators at the site during the so-called ‘Punjab independence referendum’.
US-based Sikhs for Justice – which is a banned organisation in India – has been campaigning for the creation of Khalistan.
Several Australian MPs had expressed concern over the violence. Tensions were witnessed within Australia’s growing Indian diaspora since the campaign among local secessionists intensified recently, and a spate of graffiti attacks on Hindu temples in Melbourne were reported. Chitresh Dhawan said that he has spent 30 years in this “study abroad” business (mainly Australia), but he has never come across this kind of a rejection. “I will raise this issue during meeting with Australia High Commission.” he added.
He said that from Haryana several students are found indulging in fraud cases. They are found to be submitting fake documents related to financial proofs and educational qualifications, and some unscrupulous travel agents are misleading these students to commit such frauds, which ultimately creates a bad impression about them, he added. “Our government should act against such agents who are ruining the future of many a good candidate,” he added.
Kapurthala-based consultant Gurpreet Singh said that there is a huge rush of student applications for “study in Australia”, but boys are more at the receiving end of rejection than girls from here. Gurpreet Singh said that the new Australian rules are beneficial for qualified nurses, teachers and doctors.
“Even qualified doctors with high academic scores are clearing IELTS exams so that they can apply on study basis in health courses in Australia. In India there is a huge exploitation of qualified nurses who are working for some Rs 4,000 salary in well-established hospitals,” he said. Experts say that every developed country is promoting admissions of international students so as to boost their economy.
Australia needs skilled workers in hundreds of courses in the field of medical profession, nursing, dentistry, allied health, teaching, agriculture, food technology, engineering, ICT, etc. The education department of Australian government has already released a long list of identified occupations and a summary list of eligible qualifications by occupational category.
