|
Registered Migration
Agents |
|||||
Parish Patience
Solicitors, Immigration Law Section
|
||||||
| Issue No 19 | March 2000 | |||||
Offshore humanitarian program frozen |
||||||
|
||||||
Refugee program frozenOn 25 February the Minister for Immigration, Phillip Ruddock, was widely reported to have ordered a freeze on processing of all offshore humanitarian and refugee visas, and according to some reports family reunion visas as well. The claimed reason for the freeze was the number of "boat people" arriving on Australia's coastline during recent months, many of whom the Minister described as qualifying for a "formal kind of refugee status". Under international and Australian law, a person has refugee status if he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Commenting on the freeze, Margaret Piper, Executive Director of the Refugee Council of Australia, said:
Paradoxically, one of the likely outcomes of a decision to freeze processing overseas is that more people will be forced through desperation to make the dangerous choice of placing their lives in the hands of the people smugglers. How many migrants? A matter of statisticsThe Minister for Immigration and his Department have taken to talking about "net overseas migration", with a figure of 117,335 in 1998/89 being the highest for a decade. Despite the terminology, however, this figure gives no real indication of the actual size of immigration to Australia in the historical sense understood by most people. Statistics published by the Department give the "net overseas migration" figure in the right hand column of a large table, but careful reading of the notes makes it clear that the number includes "long-term arrivals" as well as permanent settlers. Further digging uncovers that the definition of "long-term" means 12 months or more. This means that temporary residents, students and even backpackers taking advantage of the working holiday program are counted together with permanent settlers. Traditionally Australia has rejected the "guest worker" idea that saw hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Western Europe treated as permanent outsiders, even denying citizenship rights to their children born in the receiving countries. Immigration to Australia has always meant settling permanently, becoming part of the community and contributing to the growth of a new society. Searching through the Department's statistics for a number that reflects this idea of immigration, one finds in the middle of the table the term "net permanent gain", with a figure of 48,962 for 1998/99, close to the lowest in the past 20 years. "People are brought in on a two-year contract to do a job; in two years' time they're working in, say, New York," a spokesman for the Minister told the Sydney Morning Herald on 1 March. The short-time contribution of such visitors to the Australian economy is undeniable, but confusing them with migrants who actually take part in the building of society and contribute over generations to economic and social growth is not helpful to the ongoing public debate about immigration and population issues. In an unrelated instance of clashing statistics, the Minister for Immigration told the Sunday Telegraph on 27 February that 14 per cent of Pakistani visitors to Australia "overstayed their time". Exactly what definition of overstaying he was using is not apparent, since the statistics published by his own Department show a "visitor overstay rate" for Pakistanis of 1.6%. This is defined as the estimated percentage of visitor arrivals from that country who no longer have a valid visa. Sydney Morning Herald article -
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/01/text/national7.html Australian Citizenship Council recommends changes to citizenship lawsThe Australian Citizenship Council, headed by former Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen, presented a report in February entitled Australian Citizenship for a New Century . The report contains a number of recommendations for changes to Australian citizenship laws and policies. The most significant recommendation is that Australian law be changed to allow Australians to become citizens of other countries without automatically losing their Australian citizenship. Apart from announcing that it would "consider the Council's report in detail, seek community comment, and respond in due course", the government has not indicated what its attitude is to the Council's recommendations. Australian Citizenship Council report
- http://www.immi.gov.au/citizenship/report.htm Changes to immigration forms from 1 MarchNew versions of a number of the most commonly used application forms for Australian permanent and temporary visas came into use on 1 March 2000. By law, most applications for visas must be made on the "approved form". In the past, older versions of approved forms have been allowed to co-exist with revised versions for a period of time, with the official forms catalogue published by the Department indicating the earlist and latest acceptable versions of each form. The new catalogue published on 1 March, however, lists only the newest version of each form, suggesting that applications lodged on earlier versions may be treated as invalid. Current forms list - http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/formlist.htm Hot linksWith each edition of Australian Immigration Law Update we will try to find some new or interesting sites that you might enjoy visiting. This month, you might like to try out some of these*:
* These sites are not in any way endorsed or connected with Parish Patience. The listing of a commercial site does not imply any recommendation or warranty concerning the products or services offered. Contact us:Parish Patience
Solicitors Tel: +612 9283 1333 Liability is limited by the Solicitors Scheme under the Professional Standards Act 1994 (NSW) Previous editions:
Copyright © Parish
Patience Solicitors 2000. All rights reserved.
|
||||||
