Stop the deportations of Indian International Students

Racial Equity Aotearoa unequivocally condemns the treatment of migrant students by Immigration New Zealand and the National-led government. Many international students now face the threat of deportation due to falsified documents produced without their knowledge by immigration agents in India.

INZ is holding the students accountable, even though it is the immigration agencies who are in fact responsible for and benefit from this kind of fraud. Around 41 students have been issued with deportation liability notices, while other reports indicate that up to 150 might in fact be deported.

“We support calls for justice for these students to be able to continue their education,” says Mahdis Azarmandi, spokesperson for Racial Equity Aotearoa.

“Treating international students as only ‘walking money bags’, as long as they financially benefit the colonial state is a disgraceful form of dehumanisation, ” she continues.

Students (from the global South) already face huge financial and language barriers in their journey to obtain student visas, and they are provided with little to no support in navigating the bureaucratic hurdles of New Zealand’s education and immigration systems. They also commonly face discrimination once in the country, and often experience difficulty securing employment and accommodation, with many ending up in overcrowded houses and jobs in which they are exploited and poorly paid.

We support the efforts of unions and migrant workers’ associations in calling for a stop to these deportations, and in standing in solidarity with the students. We support the efforts of community leaders and counselling services who have been offering their care and support for migrants rendered vulnerable by systemic neglect.

REA also supports greater dialogue around constitutional transformation, as the Colonial State has been detrimental to tāngata whenua and tauiwi of colour for the past 176 years. Since the 1800s, the New Zealand government has introduced xenophobic legislation and policies. REA acknowledges that decolonisation will significantly impact on the dismantling of border imperialism, and create a safer space for migrants to feel at home in Aotearoa New Zealand.

No National MPs have come forward on this subject so far. REA therefore calls the National government to finally address this pressing issue, to revoke the deportation orders, and to organise better quality services and a social safety net for international students.

Equally glaring is the lack of support from the tertiary education sector and its leaders. The business model according to which this sector has been organised is equally to blame as it imposes managerial and marketing standards that make international students both lucrative for and vulnerable to exploitation. At the same time, it allows the upper management of universities and colleges to profit from this exploitation and forces academic and administrative staff to abide it in silence.

“It is the duty of universities to protect ALL its students. Universities should not be a business and as such international students should be valued for more than just the financial contributions they make to the university, ” says Mahdis Azarmandi.

REA challenges all universities, student associations, and major political parties to issue public proclamations of support for the affected students. We also challenge the above groups to denounce the National government’s continuous commodification of international students and the disregard for their welfare.

ENDS

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