Immigration, refugees
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Immigration detention in 2020: don’t look away
Grief, happiness, outrage: they all diminish with the passage of time. The bright colours of emotion dull as we become accustomed to new realities. I remember the shock when I first visited the immigration detention centre at Villawood almost two decades ago. Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison, where are you? Eight years is too long
For the past three months, rain or shine, a small, sad group of anywhere between 14 to 28 men meet outside Milsons Point railway station every Sunday at midday to march to and demonstrate at the gates of Kirribilli House. They deserve to be heard. Continue reading »
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Biden plans to reopen America to refugees after Trump slashed admissions (NPR Nov 11, 2020)
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to reassert America’s commitment to refugees after the Trump White House’s slashing of the resettlement program, part of the current president’s anti-immigration drive. Continue reading »
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Will President-elect Biden restore US leadership on refugees?
Biden told the audience of JRS supporters: ‘The United States has long stood as a beacon of hope for the downtrodden and the oppressed, a leader in resettling refugees and our humanitarian response. I promise, as president, I’ll reclaim that proud legacy for our country.’ Continue reading »
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Chris Sidoti. Will I go back to Mass?
Now that the lockdown has eased and public worship is resuming, a prominent Catholic in Australia wonders if it’s really worth going back to church. Continue reading »
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Home Affairs is too heavy handed to handle immigration
The 2020 Budget highlighted the dependence of Australia’s economic growth on a continually rising population. The Covid-19 border restrictions have caused negative net migration for the first time in more than a century. In a double whammy, the pandemic-induced anxieties have caused a drop in annual births per woman from 1.69 to 1.58. Continue reading »
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Migration in reverse in September 2020
Net international movements in September 2020 were negative 33,270, a reduction on the August 2020 outcome of negative 45,610. Continue reading »
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Migrants: how can we make THEM more like US?
In a crisis, the Coalition government thinks that migrants need to jump through higher hoops. Continue reading »
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Why Was Immigration Compliance Activity Tanking Pre-Covid?
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and his Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo are well known for their gratuitous cruelty. But does that mean they have been effective at maintaining immigration compliance and control? Continue reading »
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Amnesty for Undocumented Workers
The ABC reports the Government is looking into an amnesty for undocumented workers to help address a shortage of farm workers. Continue reading »
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Australian multiculturalism is a success story: it is time to enshrine it as our shared value
What makes Australia unique and special is the ability to celebrate one’s ethnicity and cultural heritage in an Australian setting. I am able to call myself a Chinese-Australian and Asian-Australian without having my loyalty questioned and allegiance to Australia judged. Continue reading »
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Forecast of 2020-21 Migration and Humanitarian Program
Australian governments have always cut the immigration intake in response to a recession. The 2020-21 intake will be no different. While the Government may announce a ‘ceiling’ that is not much below that for 2019-20, the actual planning level, which may well remain secret, will be well below the ceiling. Continue reading »
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“Help!” trumpets the elephant, “I’m being bullied by a mouse.”
The ‘elephant’ is Peter Dutton’s mega Department of Home Affairs; the ‘mouse’ is the mobile phone of an immigration detainee. Continue reading »
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Temporary Entrants Continue to ‘Go Home’ in July 2020
The Prime Minister’s call for temporary entrants to ‘go home’ continued to be effective in July 2020 with a net loss of temporary entrants of 34,830 in July 2020. Continue reading »
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Australia can’t rely on overseas migration anymore Mr. Treasurer
The Government’s July Economic Statement forecasts net overseas migration in 2020-21 will be around 31,000 – the lowest since 1975-76 and a dramatic contrast to the fanciful levels of net overseas migration forecast in the 2019 Budget. Continue reading »
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Covid Driving Down Onshore Asylum Applications
Closure of international borders has reduced the onshore asylum application rate but we still have almost 87,000 asylum seekers in Australia, the vast bulk of whom are from countries where asylum claims are not likely to be strong. Continue reading »
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Prospects for refugees and migrants if the population bomb goes bust
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) says that the UN projections up to 2100 for global population growth are about 2 billion too high, because fertility rates almost everywhere are dropping much faster than expected. Continue reading »
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Issues with the Chinese diaspora’s political participation
Australia’s public diplomacy agenda does not seem to have translated into concrete policies in regard to the Chinese diaspora, argues this excerpt from a submission to a current Senate inquiry. Continue reading »
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Multicultural Australia in danger in resurgent pandemic. Part 2 What we know but need to know more about and why.
The national medical bureaucracy needs to make one change to its data collection about COVID-19 that will be disruptive in the short term but very productive in the medium and longer term. It may save lives, reduce morbidity, protect social cohesion and help save the economy. But it hasn’t. Why is that? Continue reading »
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Multicultural Australia in danger in resurgent pandemic. Part 1: The problem
A dark hole sits at the heart of multicultural Australia – the data by-pass on how the COVID19 virus pandemic is affecting our culturally diverse communities. Continue reading »
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What is to be done about the Chinese in Oz?
During the last Federal elections, our political leaders went on WeChat, to impress the PRC émigrés. They seemed not to care about the feelings of the huayi Aussies who have mostly come here since 1951. Continue reading »
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The Plight of Yezidi Refugees and why my heart bleeds
When the Federal government named the city of Armidale in northern NSW a regional refugee settlement in 2017, it was envisaged that the newly arrived refugees would need a lot of support to settle and integrate into the community, but we did not imagine how giving this support would change us. Continue reading »
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Can we rely on the PM’s forecast economic boom?
Scott Morrison says Australia’s economy will have to expand by 3.75% per annum for the next five years to recover from the corona virus recession. Continue reading »
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ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. Is Australia a racist nation? Reflections on the last 25 years of denial – Part 1 of Racism Series
The last time Australia was labelled a racist nation by a regional power was in the wake of the election of John Howard and the emergence of Pauline Hanson in 1996 and 1997. Continue reading »
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Population ageing in Australia and Japan
Australia and Japan are demographic polar opposites. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Global Talent Independent Visa: Permanent residence in a week or two
The new Global Talent Independent (GTI) visa provides a direct permanent residence for ‘highly skilled professionals in high growth sectors’. According to the Department of Home Affairs, processing times range between two days and two months with many being decided within a week or two. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Australia’s struggles with skilled temporary migration
Kristina Keneally argues that when we come out of the current crisis we should aim for a lower level of temporary migration to make sure “Australians get a fair go and a first go at jobs.” Scott Morrison says cutting skilled temporary migration would hurt the economy. Who should we believe? Continue reading »
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MICHELLE PETERIE.-The human cost of forced relocation of immigration detainees.(The Conversation 2.3.2020)
The practice of moving detainees around Australia’s immigration detention network is doubly unjustifiable on economic and humanitarian grounds. Continue reading »
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The travesty of Detention Centre health care
Comcare has still not laid charges against Australian Border Force. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Morrison impotent on visa arrangements for Indonesians
The Australian of 10 February 2019 reports the Morrison government is “considering” Mr Joko’s proposal for Australia to relax visa restrictions for Indonesian visitors in line with the “visa on arrival” arrangements for Australians visiting Indonesia. Continue reading »
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