Hello and happy Friday!
News of migration and population in Australia below. Please share with friends, colleagues and like-minded associates. They can subscribe themselves using this button:
Labor’s air arrival assault
The week began with a media blitz from Labor’s Kristina Keneally about air arrivals. Her office dropped the story to David Crowe at the SMH/Age on Sunday and she backed it up by going on ABC on Monday morning. The following day David Crowe had another story on the backlog of asylum claims awaiting processing.
Keneally followed it up with a speech at the FECCA conference later in the week criticising citizenship waiting times.
Back in Parliament reporting after my stint in local news, I wrote a piece explaining the issue. The article, also picked up by The New Daily, included new figures from the Government:
In 2018-19, 1,730 people were prevented from boarding flights to Australia, a 128-per-cent increase on the previous financial year according to the department.
I spoke to Daniel Ghezelbash from Macquarie University who warned the created a "perverse" system that punished those who sought to claim protection early":
"The system incentivises asylum seekers to withhold their request for protection until after they make it through customs."
The article also used emojis to visualise the number of people arriving by air and lodging protection visa applications, which I thought was pretty neat.
2014-15
⚫⚫⚫⚫ 8,562 persons
2015-16
⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ 12,673
2016-17
⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ 18,267
2017-18
⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ 27,884
2018-19
⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ 24,520
People of Australia
Michael Koziol at The Age/SMH uncovered comments from Alexander Downer from a speech in March:
"I don't really agree with the liberal left who argue that in Australia we should change the culture of our country to accommodate migrants. I think, on the other hand, migrants who wish to come to our country should endeavour to try to integrate into our community, not set up separate ghettos.
"We want them to be able to participate fully in the activities of our country, and not to have them go off and live in separate communities and live a kind of Bantustan-style life totally separate from the rest of the mainstream of Australia."
What else happened
Policy
Australia’s two peak migration industry stakeholder groups have “roasted” a $1 billion plan to outsource visa processing to a private platform provide, reported ITNews. Tom McIlroy in the AFR ($) picked up comments from Abul Rizvi.
More on regional visas arrived from SBS Punjabi.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Australia is the most desirable market for investment in student accommodation, according to research from real estate agency Savills.
Eryk Bagshaw at the SMH/Age reported that hundreds of thousands of migrants face waiting more than a year to receive their Australian citizenship as the queue blows out and the economy risks losing a critical part of its skilled workforce.
Irish AFL player Conor Nash is stuck in immigration limbo:
Nash, 21, arrived at the airport ahead of an end-of-season holiday to Europe with teammates late last month only to be told by immigration officials that he had to leave the country immediately because his visa had expired due to an administrative oversight.
The 500-place, agriculture-focused DAMA covering NSW towns from Mudgee and Dubbo all the way to Bourke, Walgett and Cobar was formally launched last Friday by Immigration Minister David Coleman:
Orana joins the Northern Territory, the Goldfields WA, Great South Coast Victoria, Adelaide City and Regional South Australia, and Far North Queensland, to enter into the five-year agreement with the Australian Government.
The Government may win support from Jacqui Lambie for its bill to make it easier to deport migrants found guilty of an offence with some amendments, as reported by Sarah Martin in The Guardian.
The Daily Telegraph claimed Australia’s national security was put at risk($) during an Australian Border Force security outage which brought international airports to a standstill across the country.
Queensland has the most regional job vacancies, according to the Regional Australia Institute.
People
Asylum seekers who have been approved for medevac transfers to Australia are among 52 men who have been locked up in Port Moresby detention without access to phones or lawyers, reported Helen Davidson and Behrouz Boochani in The Guardian.
The ABC used the experience of Ellie Jokar, a Danish comedian, rapper, actress and Muslim, to tell the story of Denmark’s changing immigration policy:
"What feeling do you have when you're Danish? And what is the definition of a real Dane? I'm almost 40. I still don't know what a real Dane is."
The Danish media picked up the story.
The Irish Echo reported of another long-term Australian resident facing deportation:
Dublin-born Michael Walsh (not his real name) is a stranger to Ireland, having migrated to Australia as a baby more than 50 years ago, but he now faces forced repatriation after his incarceration in 2016.
A NSW woman says she is being forced to raise her twin toddlers and baby daughter on her own after her husband was denied permanent Australian residency, reported Nine.
Population
Today state treasurers meet with their federal counterparts for a forum discussing population.
It follows the launch last week of Treasury’s new population centre.
Coverage included comments from ANU demographer Heather Booth:
"We need to grasp that we are in a changing situation and that it's actually permanent.”
While Jock Collins at UTS, via Rosemary Bolger with SBS, said it was virtually impossible to accurately predict a population growth:
"The wildcard is immigration.”
Victoria Anderson, the Executive Director, is a career public servant in Treasury and the Department of Agriculture.
Infrastructure Magazine reported support from building and development representative bodies UDIA and HIA for the national population plan.
Elsewhere, the ABC looked at urban sprawl and The Age covered the suburbs facing population booms.
The world
The New Daily reported of University of Sydney researcher Dr Amanda Tattersall’s belief that a violent crackdown in Hong Kong will lead to residents seeking refugees in countries like Australia:
So far, Germany has granted asylum to two Hong Kong protesters as the situation becomes increasingly volatile.
Ben Packham at The Australian covered ($) migration challenges that might arise due to climate change.
New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister has hinted at a softening in Australia’s stance on deporting Kiwi nationals after bilateral meetings in Sydney, reported Helen Davidson at the Guardian.
The Department of Home Affairs is providing advice to the UK as it prepares its post-Brexit immigration policy.
Migration writer Fergus Peace wrote an opinion piece arguing the UK already has a points-based migration program. Academic Thom Brooks wrote a similar one:
In 2008, Gordon Brown started a points-based system. It applied to non-EU nationals only and continues today. I should know – I was admitted through it.
AFP reported of a move by France, Germany and Italy at a meeting earlier this week to rally the rest of the European bloc around a joint scheme to distribute migrants saved at sea. They failed to come to an agreement.
President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation, stating that immigrants seeking to live in the US will be denied visas unless they have health insurance or can meet health costs.
And finally, Australia's tough stance on immigration has helped keep down the vote for far-right political parties, the Australian ambassador to France has told Euronews.
Thanks for reading, catch you next week.
Jack