Are Indians achieving notoriety for allegedly gaming systems built for the vulnerable? Going by recent trends, social media is quick to pounce upon anything anti-Indian. Indians are somehow being perceived as opportunists, and this for no fault of theirs.
The latest flashpoint is Ireland. A photograph reportedly published in a mainstream Irish newspaper has ignited debate about whether Indian students on foreign visas are exploiting a university food bank meant for the underprivileged.
The Irish Times recently ran a story about how the University of Galway’s student-run food bank is being overwhelmed by demand as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. It’s reportedly forced to turn away hundreds of students every week. The story was unremarkable. The photograph that accompanied it was not.
The image showed a long queue of students waiting at the food bank. The queue appeared to be made up predominantly of South Asian, widely identified as Indian students.
It spread rapidly on X, and the internet did what the internet does.
Many users on X accused Indian students of scamming a system they had no business using. One post pointed out that a basic condition of a student visa is that the applicant must demonstrate sufficient funds to support themselves, and asked whether foreign students were lying on their visa applications or taking scarce resources away from vulnerable Irish students.
Another user wrote that the entire queue, as far as he could tell, was Indian, and warned that this erosion of social trust would eventually destroy the food bank programme.
A user added that he had witnessed a similar scene on the campuses of LSE and UCL in London, where a free vegetarian food truck for needy students had a queue made entirely of foreign students — people who, he noted, are meant to be able to pay their own way.
“Who gives them visas if they cannot support themselves?” one person in the comments section reportedly asked.
The article made no claim that Indian students were responsible for the food bank running short of food. Nor did it say the queue was made up exclusively of Indian students. The photograph showed what it showed. The Internet drew its own conclusions.
The University of Galway is one of Ireland’s oldest and largest universities. Its own website acknowledges a large community of Indian students, most of them pursuing postgraduate degrees. Whether those students are struggling genuinely or gaming the system is a question nobody has definitively answered but the photograph has made it a question the world is now asking.
Also Read: Outrage Erupts After Indian Student Pinned, Handcuffed, And Deported At Newark Airport https://www.vibesofindia.com/outrage-erupts-after-indian-student-pinned-handcuffed-and-deported-at-newark-airport/
