Introduction

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2008, 3.3 million students were enrolled in tertiary education outside their country of citizenship for one year or more. From 2000 to 2008 the foreign student population grew at 11 per cent per year (OECD, 2010, p 315). Most of these students crossed national borders for educational purposes – such students are classified as ‘international students’ – although in some countries the data also included non-citizen permanent residents. More than four international students in ten enter English language countries (OECD, 2010, p 319).

The identity of the education provider nation determines the legal and policy regime that governs international student lives. These students do not enjoy the same rights, protections and entitlements as citizens. Their status as temporary migrants with student visas leaves them in a limbo they share with other mobile people such as short-term business and labour entrants, and refugees. The uncertain, vulnerable and depowered existence of international students, their resulting problems, and what might be done to lift their dignity and position in the world, are the matters discussed here.

The chapter begins by outlining its assumptions about human security and rights. It provides a brief political economy of the global market in educational services. It then considers the legal and policy position of international (cross-border) foreign students, drawing on a recent Australian study, International student security (Marginson et al, 2010). The international student experience is mediated by non-citizen outsider status and the related facts of cultural difference, information asymmetry and communication problems. It differs from the experience of local students. The final section canvasses changes in national and global regulation.

Human rights and human security

In this chapter all people are normed as bearers of comprehensive human rights and entitlements to human security, universal rights that are not confined to national citizens or other selected groups. Charles Taylor argues in Sources of the self (1988) that it is ‘utterly wrong and unfounded to draw the boundaries’ of respect and concern for others ‘any narrower than the whole human race’ (pp 6-7). Some may question why international students should be viewed through the human rights lens, rather than, say, the lens of pastoral care, or consumer regulation.