Race not reason behind attacks on India students: Report

The 172-page report released by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), which deals with the incidents of assault and robbery crimes against overseas students in Australia between 2005-2009, is a first of its kind against the backdrop of Indian student attack crisis.

In essence, the study "indicates that international students are less likely or as likely to be victims of physical assault and other theft" as the general population of the country.

"Further, the level of crime experienced by international students of different nationalities varied, with Indian students typically experiencing the same or a heightened incidence of assault and other theft than other student nationalities," it said.

"The findings for robbery were more concerning in international students, again predominantly Indian students (males and females), but also Chinese males, were significantly more likely to be the victim of robbery for some jurisdictions for some years compared with Australian reference populations."

The report, however, rejected racism as a cause of the higher theft rate.

One reason it offered was that Indian students had a better grasp of English than students from China, Korea and other source countries, and so were better placed to get jobs where they were exposed to the public.

"Indian students in particular, are known to have a greater proficiency in English and, as such, appear much more likely than students from east Asian countries to find employment in the service sector," said the report.

"This includes service stations, convenience stores, taxi drivers and other employment that typically involves working late night shifts alone and come with an increased risk of crime, either at the workplace or while travelling to and from work."

Key findings revealed that the rates of assault for Indian students were lower than or on par with rates for the general Australian population, it said.

However, it did found that rates of robbery against Indian students were higher than average for Australians in larger states for most years.

Over half of robberies against Indian students on commercial premises occurred at service stations, it said, adding that the proportion of robberies against Indian students occurring at commercial locations was double than that recorded for students from other countries.

The higher rates of robbery against Indian students, compared with other international students, and Australian comparison populations, appeared to be more likely to occur because of a range of factors: in particular, differences in employment, with large numbers of Indian students working in higher-risk employment (taxi driving and in convenience/fast food stores and service stations), working evening/night shifts and their use of public transport.

"The Australian government takes very seriously any allegations that people are being criminally victimised," an official statement said.

In 2010, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, had announced that the AIC would conduct independent research into crimes against overseas students with particular reference to crime rates against Indian students.

On the release of the report, AIC Director Adam Tomison said "This ground-breaking analysis data matched 418,294 students from five source countries with police victim records over the five years. The nature of the data did not allow the AIC to engage in specific analysis of racial motivation.

"That said, there was nothing in the overall findings that lends support to the view that Indian students have been singled out primarily for racial reasons."

As the data did not include offender profiles, the AIC could not engage in specific analysis of racial motivation.

The fact that assault rates on Indian students were either below or the same as the rates of assault for the general Australian community suggests that race is not a primary motivation.

The research will be used to counter the fears of parents and authorities in India that their children coming here on student visas suffer from race-based attacks.

"... they should not yet be interpreted as evidence of racism," said the report of the study`s findings.

The fears of parents, fanned by bitter news reports, have damaged the international education industry, Australia`s third-biggest export worth about USD 18 billion a year.

AIC examined the immigration records of more than 400,000 foreign students and cross-referenced with police reports of crimes between 2005 and 2009 in the first study of its type.

The study found that 29 per cent of international students were employed in accommodation and food services, followed by 16 per cent in the retail trade.