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Farewell to foreign friends


Sarah

Sarah is 21 years-old and has just finished her final year at Luton University where she studied a BA in Media Production and Creative Writing. She enjoys writing, and if she's not doing that you'll find her head in a novel reading. Now faced with the 'big bad world' she intends to build a successful career doing what she loves the most.

Sarah's just finished uni, but as well as saying goodbye to studying she's also being forced to say goodbye to her foreign friend. Why can't she stay here to use her new qualifications in the workplace, she fumes.

On the last day of university I was feeling a mixture of nostalgia and hope. Nostalgia for the first year when there were still two to go and hope that I'd get out there and earn a decent living. My trusty friend was there experiencing it all with me as she had many times before, both of us anxious to 'get a life' away from the shelter of uni. We wanted to be there for each other along the way as always; the fun times, the crap times and all the other moments that friends go through with you. Unfortunately as well as being my friend she is also an international student so the country says 'you can't'.

Thousands of international students study here every year. They are one of the reasons that universities here are so diverse, dynamic and generally fun to be in. But being an international graduate in the UK does not necessarily mean you have the right to stay after your degree. For many it means 'we've got your money and used you as a statistic but that's over now so we no longer need or want you - goodbye'. We have a laugh and a joke about it, bringing it up in passing conversation but when the realisation hits us we stop because it's better than getting upset.

What bugs me is the mountain of factors stacked up against someone who wants to work for a living using their studies to build a career in this country. For a start there's snobbery about what subject you study. We are media students and media professionals are seemingly less important than the likes of medical and law professionals. So what is that saying? Regardless of your passion and scrapping all your dreams, work in this area because we'll love you a lot more for it and we'll treat you better at the end of the course? Where you are from is another factor. The UK views particular countries as 'friends' or more valuable to them than others, affecting your chances of staying. Does this mean because the country isn't particularly close with my friend's nation I shouldn't be friends with her either?

"There's snobbery about what subject you study. We are media students and media professionals are seemingly less important than the likes of medical and law professionals."

Because of the problems we have with immigration, individuals are now rarely seen as individual, so cases are being overlooked and people are suffering unfair evaluation. You don't always stop to think about it, but the country is made up of people from all over the world who have made a home here and continue to be part of what makes this country so great. Why can't my friend be seen as a positive addition to an already thriving multicultural community?

As I begin to pack away my life as a student, nostalgia creeps in again. I've handed in my last piece of work, we've had our last drink at the union bar, eaten our last student meal and seen some faces that we see everyday for the last time. There will be no more moaning to my friend about random things or laughing over funny TV if she's thousands of miles away.

It's all very final but I still find myself hoping for a loophole to the rules or an extremely fortunate event. Whatever happens, I do hope that I haven't lost a very important friendship.


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