My tearful farewell to my son cast new light on the foreign student ‘industry’

I was 22, saying goodbye to my parents at the Sydney international terminal. Suddenly finding his last words, my dad rushed up, grabbed my shoulders, and yelped: “Don’t trustCharacteristically, it didn’t come out as he wanted. In the long time I was away, I wondered what he actually meant. Something about his fears and anxieties, but really a chaotic, semi-coherent expression of love. It was left to me to build a bridge between what he said and what he meant.

Of the 717,500 international students currently in Australia, much is said about the burden they place on housing and jobs, the warp factor they exercise on educational priorities, the commercialising impact they have on universities, and the opportunities they provide for exploiters.

Now, the technology we spend so much time distrusting – the social media platforms, the WhatsApp groups, the smartphone hegemony – is our salvation. Often, thanks to that same technology, separated families talk more than they do when they’re in the same home.

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