ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Indian students play an important role in the way the collective memory continues to affect reflections on and perceptions of the international student “market” or “education industry.” The education industry and its symbiotic relationship with Australia’s skilled migration program privileges a notion of self which draws upon a neoliberal logic of capital gains, university “dependencies,” and adjustments to the program or system in order to bring it in line with market realities and/or stymie undesirable developments. The chapter focuses on the Australian self and the Indian other to show how multiple and often conflicting notions of masculinity permeate and infuse perceptions of and discussions about Indian students in Australia. It aims to understand the way a hegemonic neoliberal and ultimately masculine logic pushes Indian students’ wellbeing as a topic of concern to the background so that the recuperation of the “system” and its intended outcome or “profit” can be prioritized.
