Victoria Police Admits: Indians are Overrepresented in Robbery Statistics.

The ABC* has finally extracted an admission from the Chief of the Victorian Police that Indians are over-represented in crime statistics in Melbourne. Looking deeper into the statistics some interesting points emerge. Firstly, about 50% of attacks on Indians have been on Taxi drivers or in convenience stores and the over-representation is in robberies, not assaults as the media hype has led us to believe.

If anyone reading this has been in Melbourne lately they will know that Indians are now the most common taxi drivers & the most common convenience store attendants. Taxi drivers and convenience store attendants have been attacked in Melbourne for decades, long before the latest wave of Indians came along. These are very dangerous jobs. How many of the robberies and attacks we hear about are simply because the Indians coming here as students don't have enough money to live and are prepared to do any job? How many of the attacks could have been avoided by people who are more familiar with drunken, loutish behaviour and ways to avoid it? I've never worked in a convenience store on a midnight to dawn shift but have heard enough stories to avoid doing it at all costs. To those parents who are sending their sons to Melbourne to study, without enough money for fees and living expenses, be aware that you are putting them into a more dangerous life than most Australians lead. More dangerous than most overseas students too.

Then the same question needs to be turned around to the Australian government. Why are students accepted without enough money to live on? Why are students allowed to stay on after their courses have finished if the only jobs they can get are as taxi drivers? Clearly the skilled migration scheme has brought in a lot of people who are ready and willing to work, but aren't quite appropriate for skilled jobs in Australia. The government has avoided any big changes to the skilled immigration policy because it would endanger the now-enormous education industry. As long as a degree from an Australian University gives a small fraction of overseas students the ability to stay here permanently, the Universities will be flooded with students. Many of those students will end up going back home to families who will see them as failures, their youth & hope wasted on the dream of becoming Australian residents. This puts too much pressure on students, leading to risk taking, suicides and mental illness. The skilled immigration laws should be tightened to de-couple permanent residence in Australia from long courses of study - perhaps the English proficiency requirement should be judged at the beginning of the course, not at the end, so students don't maintain the Australian dream for several years of study, just to have it dashed at the end.

*Australian Broadcasting Corporation