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Population and immigration news for the week is below. Please forward to friends, they can subscribe by pressing or clicking this button:
Migration erupts in Canberra
A big week for migration in Federal Parliament.
The Australian’s Geoff Chambers reported on ($) the move by Labor and The Greens to block fast-track asylum claim processing. At the time of writing debate on the motion had been delayed until November.
Helen Davidson at The Guardian covered that Peter Dutton had used his ministerial powers for the first time to override doctors’ recommendations to transfer an individual.
The visa process outsourcing debate erupted in the chamber.
And the Greens tagged on an amendment to the character test bill that would block visa processing by those outside the public service.
The Government did not bring on the bill’s debate in the Senate, presumably because they were unsure whether they had the numbers ... to both defeat the amendment and pass the bill.
Late in the week, Labor co-sponsored the amendment. Centre Alliance supports it. And One Nation and Jacqui Lambie have a record of supporting policy spruiking local jobs, and opposing laws that may threaten them.
The Government faces the risk of this kind of amendment being made to future migration legislation.
People of Australia
New Idea covered Australia’s “10 most famous” refugees.
Sorry but no, Dr Karl was not number one.
What else happened
Policy
Visitor arrivals hit a new high in the ABS’ overseas arrivals and departures statistics for August:
Regina Jefferies and Daniel Ghezelbash were critical of Home Affairs’ management of the refugee processing system in The Conversation.
Shyla Vohra, migration director of the Regional Australia Institute, wrote in The Canberra Times of seven "steps to settlement success".
Ryan Edwards concludes DevPolicy’s series on migration with a “few brain drain-related reflections on Australia’s current Pacific labour mobility initiatives”.
There are now 60,000 jobs in regional Australia that are going unfilled, according to one estimate.
The Government released figures showing regional visa grants had increased, in Tasmania ($), South Australia ($), Northern Territory ($), and Western Australia. Strange that we still need new regional visas…
There was also an awkward moment about airline arrival statistics following David Crowe’s story last week:
While the original figures showed more than 80 people were arriving by plane each day and claiming asylum, the corrected answer found the rate was closer to 65 per day. The difference is crucial to the political argument over whether Australia is on course for a new record this year after 95,000 arrivals over the past five years under the Coalition.
People
A poll of nearly 3000 new Australians revealed the most amusing and misunderstood sayings ($):
“G’day” topped the list with migrants sometimes misinterpreting the true blue greeting as “God Day”, “get aye” and even “get hay”. “Mate”, “good on ya”, “how ya going?”, “she’ll be right”, “bloody oath” and “fair dinkum” — frequently heard as “fair drinkum” — were also terms migrants found especially amusing and hardest to fathom.
Population
Last week’s meeting of state treasurers was wrapped ($) with reports of an agreement on a national population-planning framework that will involve closer co-operation on a three-year plan as well as an annual statement.
The Examiner in Tasmania quoted predictions from Deloitte Access Economics that Sydney and Melbourne house prices will further boost Tasmania's population.
Former Tony Abbott chief of staff Peta Credlin criticised ($) Treasury’s approach to migration and how it was given responsibility for the Centre for Population.
The world
Boris Johnson’s plan to offer preferential treatment to migrants who agree to live in the North of England has been branded “confused”.
The South China Morning Post reported a recovery in the Melbourne and Sydney property markets is being boosted by Hong Kong investors fleeing anti-government protests.
The LA Times also looked at escape strategies for Hongkongers:
Australia is a favorite for clients of John Hu, founder and principal consultant at John Hu Migration Consulting in Hong Kong. Advantages include a small time difference with China and mild climate.
Under the headline of “Britain adopts Australian migration policy”, The Australian reported ($) that migrants seeking to move to the UK after Brexit will be given extra points if they agree to take skilled jobs in northern England and coastal towns.
AAP covered the winding up of facilities on Manus Island.
Finally, Phil Honeywood from International Education Association wrote about research into migrants’ jobs and skills:
The irony in all of this is that temporary graduates have higher-level qualifications (and many would argue are more integrated into our community) than skilled stream migrants. But comparatively, they are likelier to be working in low-skilled occupations.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be covering Senate estimates next week. Let me know if you have any lines of inquiry.
Jack