Blog Marco

There's plenty of foreign students in Australia... studying because they either find Australian education better than what they can get back in their country or so they can get a PR (Permanent Resident) ticket into Australia. But the latter reason is being tightened up by the Australian Government. From September 1, foreign students finishing their courses will no longer be automatically entitled to apply for a general skilled migration visa - which is used as a stepping stone to PR status. From that date, their will need to have "competent" English skills equivalent to those of a year 12 student with 12 months work experience in the field in which they studied, working a minimum of 20 hours a week. Labor's immigration spokesman, Tony Burke was all for it saying that Engineers arrive in Australia with English so bad that they end up as Taxi drivers... "and they don't make great Sydney taxi drivers," he said. Also some universities are becoming visa factories where there has been a surge of enrolments in cooking and hairdressing although they have no intention of following up with that vocation - only to use the education as a ticket to PR status.

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