Tag: Immigration

Abbott's Speech

Shrinking Australia The Monthly

via Shrinking Australia The Monthly

Abbott

How John Howard boosted migration and embraced foreign students, in five charts – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Permanent IntakeChart showing large growth in permanent visas granted annually under Howard.

Student and 457 visas

Chart showing grown in student and 457 visas during the Howard government.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott wants Australia to cut its immigration intake to what it was under the Howard government.

He told an internet radio station on Tuesday afternoon that “we’ve got to get the numbers down, and get them down very significantly”.

Changes in Australia’s immigration sector were significant under Mr Howard, but not because his government kept the permanent intake — now at 190,000 visas per year — low.

However the latter years of Mr Howard’s prime ministership delivered significant increase to net overseas migration as a proportion of the population.
Migration intake
Chart showing large growth in permanent visas granted annually under Howard.

By the time of the 2007 election, his government had doubled the permanent intake.

via How John Howard boosted migration and embraced foreign students, in five charts – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australia's Shame

‘Fallen well short’ of standards: Audit slams Immigration Department over Nauru and Manus Island contracts

Billions of taxpayer dollars were handed to the private contractors running Australia’s offshore detention centres without adequate authorisation or value-for-money assessments, the Commonwealth auditor has found.

Source: ‘Fallen well short’ of standards: Audit slams Immigration Department over Nauru and Manus Island contracts

Australia

Letting Catholic priests into Australia was a mistake | The Monthly

Warning: you are now entering a politically incorrect zone. Australia is in the middle of an honest discussion, fuelled by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Previously, Australia’s immigration policy has been based on a complex, rather muddled process where immigrants from all over the world joined the so-called “most successful and harmonious multicultural nation in the world”.

Source: Letting Catholic priests into Australia was a mistake | The Monthly

Muslims

False perceptions: what lies behind our attitudes to Muslim immigration | Peter Lewis | Opinion | The Guardian

This week’s act of political leadership rejecting racist immigration policy is commendable, and an important marker for multiculturalism

Source: False perceptions: what lies behind our attitudes to Muslim immigration | Peter Lewis | Opinion | The Guardian

Australia's Shame

Australia’s dirty policy deal finally comes unstuck

Manus – Australia’s dirty policy deal finally comes unstuck

Source: Australia’s dirty policy deal finally comes unstuck

Australia's Shame

Australia’s asylum seeker policies criticised again in New York Times | SBS News

The New York Times has run a full-length op-ed in its Monday edition which labels Australia’s offshore refugee detention policy as cruel and dehumanising. Regular columnist Roger Cohen wrote that Australia’s treatment of refugees “follows textbook rules for the administering of cruelty”.

Source: Australia’s asylum seeker policies criticised again in New York Times | SBS News

Australia's Shame

A despicable press conference | The Monthly

Peter Dutton today displayed either the worst case of cynicism I have seen in politics – which, believe me, is saying something – or a sad tendency towards self-delusion. Another refugee has set themselves on fire. Take a moment to consider the first word of the previous sentence. Another. This time it was a young Somali woman, Hodan Yasi. This time.

Source: A despicable press conference | The Monthly

sexual assault

Cologne sex attacks: We Germans must not confuse the issues of sexual violence and immigration | Voices | The Independent

When most of German society along with our chancellor Angela Merkel declared “refugees welcome” last summer, I was grateful, and – unusually for a left-thinking German like myself – proud of my country. Of course, it was always clear that this gesture was going to present a whole bunch of challenges. After discussing the administrative challenge (“Can we manage this”), we directly slipped into another one: the fears we might have about different cultures and habits.

Source: Cologne sex attacks: We Germans must not confuse the issues of sexual violence and immigration | Voices | The Independent

USA

VIDEO: Jorge Ramos on Why More Immigrants = Less Crime

https://youtu.be/DK2lrvG1NlA

Conservative Media

How Conservative Media Obliterated The Space For “Compassionate Conservatism” On Immigration: Andrew Bolt’s Not Original.

Source: How Conservative Media Obliterated The Space For “Compassionate Conservatism” On Immigration | Blog | Media Matters for America

Asylum Seekers

UN cancels Australia visit over Border Force laws

The United Nations has postponed a planned visit to Australia because the federal government has failed to guarantee no one would be charged or intimidated for talking to its special rapporteur about asylum seekers and migrants.

Source: UN cancels Australia visit over Border Force laws

Australian Politics

Secret freeze on refugee citizenship processes | The Saturday Paper

Image result for hazara pics

The government has ceased processing citizenship applications from boat-arrival refugees entitled to become Australians, leaving hundreds in limbo.

Source: Secret freeze on refugee citizenship processes | The Saturday Paper

Asylum Seekers

Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers was bound to lead to something like Border Force | Richard Flanagan

As history teaches us, tyranny condoned against some will finally become a tyranny visited on us all. Tony Abbott cannot distance himself from this

Source: Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers was bound to lead to something like Border Force | Richard Flanagan | Comment is free | The Guardian

Humour

Border Force Concedes ‘Operation Fortitude’ Press Release Accidentally Sent From 1938
border force
By on August 28, 2015

Australian Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has conceded that the initial press release announcing Operation Fortitude was a “clumsily translated” statement accidentally sent from the 1930s. 

“It did come across as a little abrupt. It’s always hard to translate these things perfectly from the original German,” Mr Quaedvlieg said.

Operation Fortitude – now cancelled – would have seen Border Force officers stopping people to question them about their visa status, with officers patrolling Flinders Street Station and other prominent border crossing points.

But there was an immediate backlash, with many claiming it was not realistic for people to carry around visa papers at all times. A spokesperson for Border Force agreed. “An armband or a small badge sewn onto a person’s clothing identifying their visa status would be much more practical for everyone involved”.

Humour

Want a job that pays good money? Join the immigration department! Simply complete this questionnaire to see if you’re a monstrous moral vacuum suitable for a job at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection

Asylum Seekers

Doctor accuses immigration department of medical interference in treatment of people on Nauru – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Dr Young said he was told several times not to note psychological harm in reports.

Doctor accuses immigration department of medical interference in treatment of people on Nauru – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).