The Issue of Foreign & Local Student Interaction in Australian Campuses.
“When in Rome do as the Romans do”
This relates to the situation of international students at campuses throughout Australia; an Adelaide University Overseas Students’ Association report in 2005 and a 2004 joint Melbourne University-Monash University report concluded that the interaction between international and local students was very low.
Professor Simon Marginson from Melbourne University said that the interaction between foreign and local university students is of concern but not alarming.
There are three parties which have a role in the interaction between international and local university students; the universities, the international students, and then the local students. Universities search ways to promote interaction but is this enough? Are there are other things that universities need to do?
The three parties mentioned before have a direct role to play in promoting interaction on campus, while a fourth party the media has a special interest that stems from money; objectivity is not the principle aim, neither is it important. Like the media all round the world, the media here exaggerates, and the problem isn’t as big as they say.
However, the media cannot be blamed because in fact ‘such media’ tries to report certain events as much as possible and objectivity is secondary. There is a belief that the media, especially television, reveals both the good and the bad. Likewise with the electronic media. What is important here is that the community needs to read and watch what the media puts forth with a critical eye.
Low interaction with local students or the Australian community can cause problems as was seen last June with the two day demonstration staged by Indian students in Melbourne. It was commented that this would occur again if the government did not listen to their concerns. The demonstration occurred after an Indian student was stabbed and seriously hurt and had to be hospitalised.
Was the stabbing racially motivated or was it just bad luck?
Several days prior saw an Australian named Luke Mitchell who tried to help a person being attacked but who was then overwhelmed by the attackers. Fortunately Luke and several of his friends were able to get away. However not long afterwards Luke was attacked and repeatedly stabbed by two Asians and died as a result! (Herald-Sun 25/5/09) But because he was an Australian, not an international student, this did not become a major issue! What in fact happened?
Language could be an important factor, but not the most important, because evidently IDENTITY had a more significant and dominant role.
One of the Indian parents said in the The Age newspaper, that "it could happen anywhere in the world", but because by chance it happened to a foreign student then it was made into a racial issue! Is it justified to refer to all Australians as racist? The White Paper on racism in Australia actually revealed that those opposed to migration were not Australians of Anglo-Saxon descent but those of non-Anglo descent! The irony and tragedy!
In the meantime, on June 5 a "Bilingual Forum" was held at the Indonesian Consulate in Melbourne, attended by both Australian and Indonesian students of both genders including both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
We know that the undergraduate experience is different to that of the postgraduate, and it could be said that undergraduate students have more opportunity because they are younger and are less likely to be married.
Under the, many students who studied overseas and came to Australia, and interacted more with the Australian community. Indeed, many married Australians and didn’t return to Indonesia. The Indonesian Government then considered the program a failure! The program then changed so that students who were married or had children were sent overseas to study, and this proved more ‘successful’ as after completing study, they were more likely to return home.
From discussions at the Consulate, it is evident that there are difficulties in international-local student interaction. As reported by the Overseas Students’ Association the two groups did not know how to socialise with each other.
Identity more than language appeared to be an important factor, and it is surprising that this was not picked up in the report.
The issue of racism was not a major component of the discussion. After one of the panel members stated that “the white men are so arrogant”, the Australian panel responded that racism was not something unique to Australia.
Maybe because the number of Indonesian students is small compared to those from say China or India? Or Indonesian students are friendlier or more sociable? Or is it also possible that Indonesian students themselves realised that Indonesians are in fact also racist!
Statements like: “ a typical Sumatran “ or “ Javanese are very slow”, "Si Bule” (White man),
Isn’t that racism? Racism exists in the world! We just don’t realise it! In the dictionary there is the following definition of racist: Where an ethnic group determines the capacity and characteristics of someone or a group. Only we Indonesians haven’t realised that we are in fact also racist. So it is better that we don’t slavishly take the anti-racism stance.
According to one former Indonesian student who came to Australia in secondary school, afterwards successfully studying at Macquarie University and the Australian National University and who is now a CEO of an Australian company we don’t have to be concerned about our English not being perfect. It was important that the intention and appearance is good as there are two factors evidently more important.
Religion is also an important factor. As explained by an Indonesian student from the Colombo Program, “In the 70s with the rise of religion, especially in Indonesia, the Islamic Indonesian student was reluctant to socialise with the local community to avoid drinking and BBQs which did not use halal meat”. This theme was further elaborated by someone known as a Preacher, that religion is a hindrance to interaction with local students. ‘Footy’ has been recognised as a vehicle to enable international students to interact with local students and the local community.
The closer we look the more we see the role of personality. In the Macquarie ‘ an organised pattern of all the characteristics of an individual.’ Identity is said to be the characteristics reflected in the attitude of someone or a nation that distinguishes from another person or nation.
The role of identity is difficult to measure and it is not surprising that it is not given a major mention in the reports of Adelaide University and Monash and Melbourne Universities.
The discussion at the Indonesian Consulate General and attended by the Consul himself, Budiarman Bahar in early June could be the start of further similar discussions as it was evident that it was positively received based on the participants’ comments.
The Consulate General, "The evening went well with people actively participating. I am very happy that we could share an evening like this.”
Other comments included:
"I am very interested in this topic and it warrants discussion. I will invite Indonesian friends who have had similar experiences.”
"Congratulations, the event was successful and there was great enthusiasm too".
"People were lovely, food was very nice, setting was perfect." I hope my contribution was received well. I have no way of knowing. Indonesians are always polite, they won’t tell you if you have been a goose.”
"It was nice to be in the Consulate again after all these years."
Anton Alimin
aalimin@hotmail.com
Translated by: Lou Truda
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