Racism in the tertiary education sector : a case of Indian student attacks in Australia

During mid-2009 there was a substantial amount of media and political attention to the issue of physical attacks on international students in Australian cities. Controversy surrounded the claims by victims and their representatives that the attacks were racist, especially those attacks against students of Indian background. Some police and political leaders stated that the attacks were the 'usual' sorts of assaults and incivilities typical of the night-time economies of modern Australian cities. It was suggested that international students may be especially exposed to such violence because of their high dependence on public transport, their use of that transport in the late evenings, their penchants for expensive gadgetry, and perceptions by muggers and bullies that they were passive or soft targets (see critique in Dunn et al., 2011; Jakubowicz and Monani, 2011). As part of their research on the experiences of international students Marginson et al. (2010) observed some of the criminal court proceedings against those accused of these assaults. The courts heard references to a 'curry bashing' sub-culture that had emerged among some Melbourne youth. This strongly suggested that the attacks did have a racist element. What can a geographical analysis of available data reveal about the likelihood or not of there being a racist element to the attacks on international students?