My highly educated Uber driver’s heartache underscores how transactional Australia’s visa regime has become | Julianne Schultz

Belonging is hard when gaining citizenship is so expensive. The state has just become a regulator of the market I had scarcely closed the door of the Uber that saved me from getting drenched in the sleety Melbourne rain when the driver asked, “Are you a professor?” “ Well, yes,” I replied. But the question took me by surprise, most drivers barely notice their passengers. It wasn’t a bad guess; I was outside a university.