The Nexus and Its Discontents: An Australian Perspective

Abstract

The education-migration nexus affected both policy development and what can be referred to as ‘cultures of migration’ (Massey et al., 1998; Tsuda, 1999; Kandel and Massey, 2002) across most OECD countries. Australia, however, for a number of reasons, provides a particularly significant case study of the nexus and its discontents. First, international education has quite rapidly become a highly transformative force not only within Australia’s economy but also within the social fabric of its educational and urban landscapes. Enrolments of full-fee-paying international students rose from under 100,000 in 1994 to over 600,000 in 2010 (AEI, 2010a). Australia is the third largest provider of international education services globally (after the United Kingdom and the United States) and has the highest proportional rate of international students across all OECD countries — one in every five post-secondary students enrolled in Australia is an international student (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). In addition to the economic and social significance of the international education industry itself, Australia has also been a global leader in the interlinking of international education and skilled migration policies.

Immigration challenges easy divisions between state and non-state actors, policy and practice, state and civil society.

Mountz, 2010, p. xxiv