It’s Time to Give International Students a Fair Go

Teigan Margetts is unequivocally committed to ensuring that the future leaders of tomorrow reflect the diversity of the society they represent. She is an expert on all things diversity and inclusion and aims to educate society at large about the harmful effects of stereotypes.

Are you an international student who wants a graduate job? You’ll definitely need to read The Graduate Job Manifesto, and also know how to avoid the graduate employability crisis.

I was recently discussing the topic of international students with a graduate recruitment acquaintance of mine. She mentioned that she’d hired an international student once, and it ‘didn’t work out,’ so she wouldn’t take that risk again. The unfortunate fact is that I should have been taken aback by her comment, but I wasn’t. I hear and see discrimination, overt and covert, towards international students on an almost daily basis in my industry. For a nation that was built by immigrants, it appears we really aren’t giving international students a fair go.

In the recent graduate recruitment season, over 200 companies opened their doors to university graduates. However, only 5 of those were willing to accept applications from international students. Given that universities have up to 80% international student graduates, many of whom would like to at least start their career in Australia, the percentage of international graduates who obtain a position here must be frighteningly low.

Why aren’t companies hiring international graduates? Reasons often cited include visa and retention issues, and communication and ‘cultural fit’ concerns. The visa issue concern is partly justified, in that you can’t technically offer a graduate a full time continuing employment contract without full time continuing work rights. However, there is an easy workaround — a fixed term contract for the duration of the graduate’s visa (which is now at least 2 years, due to recent changes in immigration law ). Concerns companies may have about sponsoring the graduate after their temporary visa has expired are largely unjustified, given that by that time the individual will have a very high chance of gaining permanent residency. Retention issues, I believe, are just an excuse. From my experience with international students, their gratefulness for the opportunity often translates into intense company loyalty, ensuring that the risk for ‘not getting back what you invested in them’ from a graduate program perspective is marginal, if not non-existent.

In regards to communication concerns, certainly, it is advantageous, but not essential to be a native English speaker in Australia. However, considering that communication is 55% body language and 38% tone of voice, are we placing too much emphasis on the 7% ‘words’ that international students may occasionally struggle with? In terms of cultural fit, graduate programs are built on the premise that graduates are ‘blank canvasses’ that can be moulded into whatever is required by the organization. Given this, why are we worrying so much about ‘cultural fit’? Could it be that we don’t value diversity as much as we say we do?

In my opinion, international students are too often seen through a ‘deficit model’ ie. what they lack as opposed to what they offer. However, what they offer can, and often does, compensate for what they lack. I’m stereotyping, but in my experience international students have an absolutely fantastic work ethic, and more willing to take on basic tasks without complaint, as opposed to some particularly ‘Gen Y’ local students who demand ‘important, interesting , CEO-esque work’ from day one. More importantly, however, international students can far outweigh local students in what I call the ‘accumulation of leadership capital.’ This refers to a general maturity, resilience and understanding of life that is built through one’s previous experiences, and assists with both the transition to working life, and future career success. In reality, international students are far more likely to have accumulated this type of capital — they have acquired maturity and independence through having to relocate and settle in to a new country half way across the world, they have built resilience through facing challenging situations in their home country , and they have acquired a rich cross-cultural understanding of life through living in multiple countries, with no family or friend support. And if this isn’t enough, in the global economy that Australia operates we are increasingly relying on resources in Asia and India, so it can’t hurt to hire someone who ‘speaks that language’ literally and culturally.

So come on, Australia. It’s time to give international students a fair go.