Amy thought she had a secure job as an international student
Back in 2023, international student Amy - not her real name - thought she had found a secure job in Darwin. The then 30-year-old was hired as a student service officer, by vocational education provider International House Sydney, where she was studying for an Advanced Diploma in Program Management. And unlike cash-in-hand casual jobs that many international students and new migrants often take, Amy felt secure with the position. "It was a part-time permanent job, because I was on a student visa, so I could only work part-time, but it was a permanent contract." But in January 2025 the company went into liquidation. Amy's Australian colleagues were able to access the Australian government's Fair Entitlements Guarantee, or FEG. The Guarantee allows people to claim back wages, redundancy payments and other entitlements after a company closes. But because Amy was an international student, she wasn't eligible for the scheme meaning that until today, she still hasn't been paid some wages or other entitlements after the company closed. "So I thought that I would be more protected if I had a permanent contract. But then, when this happened, I realised that as an migrant, I do not have the same rights. I cannot access the same, yes, the same safety net as an Australian or a (permanent) resident." According to International House Sydney's liquidator, PKF Melbourne, the education provider had been trading at a loss from at least June 2022. By the time it went into administration, it had around 3,800 students and 318 staff. Amy says they were informed by the liquidator that if funds remained after the liquidation, staff who couldn't access the FEG would be prioritised for repayment. SBS News have put questions about follow-up payments with migrant staff to PKF Melbourne, but they didn't reply specifically to the question. It's an issue facing many small and medium-size education providers after the federal government tightened international student enrolments last year. Felix Pirie is the chief executive of Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia. "We saw a big downturn for students to apply, to come or even consider lodging an application to come to Australia to undertake skills training courses but also English language programs." According to a report by the ITECA, in 2021 there are around 162,000 students enrolling in independent higher education providers with over half of them international students. Mr Pirie says the increased fees for visa applications and the slowdown of visa process hit his sector most. "The outcome of these things is that independent providers are the ones singled out at the end of the day, or they are the one that certainly feels the biggest impacts, and it's the people they employ. So they employ significant workforce, and when their business start to suffer, those people lose their jobs." If an international student finds their education provider goes into administration, they have the right to access the government's Tuition Protection Service. This helps students find alternative course options and get a full refund from the provider. Matt Kunkel is the Chief Executive Officer of Migrant Workers Centre in Victoria. He says many international students are also employed in the sector. "What the other impact on this is for many migrant workers is that once they complete their education in Australia, many of them are moving into the education sector themselves, and in particular the international education sector. So for those workers who have come to build a life, to get an education and build a life in Australia, these international caps are putting pressure on jobs in the sector." In 2019, the then Coalition government released the final report from the government's Migrant Workers' Taskforce, which recommended an expansion of the FEG to all migrant workers. The Migrant Workers' Taskforce was established in 2016 to tackle migrant worker exploitation but since the 2019 report - the FEG has yet to be expanded. In 2025 the Albanese Labor government announced a consultation process looking into reforms to the FEG, after some businesses were found to have misused the scheme. Mr Kunkel says the federal government needs to allow international students and migrant workers to access the FEG as soon as possible. "Our visa system is built around this idea that international students are here just to study. But the reality is that many of those international students are here working and studying in Australia, and we need a visa system that allows those workers who are coming, those international students who are coming to Australia to be able to live a dignified life as they study and get that education." Seri Feldman-Gubbay is a senior solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre. She also agrees that there's a gap between the safety net for local workers and international students. "I think that the biggest thing is that a lot of Australian employing businesses rely on the fact that international students will be unfamiliar with the legal system and the rules in Australia. And so there will be, I guess, a false sense of confidence that is this employer is going to do right by me, when, in actual fact, a lot of employers take advantage of that lack of knowledge to then do the wrong thing and leave people in a really bad position." And without the FEG scheme, Ms Feldman-Gubbay says for employees like Amy taking claims to court is one option. Amy wants to see a change. "I don't think I will ever be compensated, because I doubt there's money to be found, but I would really hope that in the future, nobody else has to go through this situation, or also for there to at least be something that is more talked about. I have not heard about this until it happened to me. I think that every migrant should know that this is something that could happen to them."
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