Another week, another migration policy. Except that makes it sound normal, and this nasty race to the bottom between those who purport to represent us is anything but.

In a former life, when I worked with Australia’s universities, I thought a lot about the economic and social contributions of international students.

But beyond that slightly sterile-sounding construction, it was the personal stories that stayed with me.

Just before Covid closed almost everything down, I wrote an op-ed about a young international student, Ari (not his real name), working part-time at Just Jeans to support himself. My then 12-year-old daughter and I had dashed in to beat the lockdown. Ari was endlessly patient, showing a girl ten years his junior the whole range, but most importantly encouraging her towards the jeans ‘most comfortable for study’. Ari was in his final year of a highly complex degree. He loved his part-time........

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