Hello and happy Friday!
Enjoy the week’s immigration and population news and please share with friends. Just forward this email.
Scanlon surprises
The Scanlon report into social cohesion was released. Most outlets focused on how concern around climate change is growing. But attitudes towards migration also featured.
Here’s Peggy Giakoumelos at SBS:
The annual Scanlon Foundation report has found negative attitudes about Muslims remain high, while concerns about climate change have almost doubled.
Something happened in 2017. Australia is second only to Canada in welcoming immigration on a large scale. Our faith in the benefits of accepting newcomers of all faiths and races is rock solid. But a couple of years ago we began to grow impatient about the government’s management of the immigration program, impatient in particular about overcrowding in our cities.
Australians are most likely to feel uneasy about Muslim immigrants than other faith groups. Negative sentiment towards Muslims ranged from 21 to 25 per cent in the interview-based surveys, and 39 to 41 per cent in the online questionnaires, indicating that respondents were more likely to express negative views when they filled out the forms without an interviewer present.
People of Australia
Cameron Wilson at Buzzfeed reported Bindi Irwin has cut ties with an Australian group that wants to slash immigration to net zero, following questions about her involvement.
What else happened
Policy
Rose Bolger at SBS reported that Sidney Vo and her son Billy will be allowed to stay in Australia after the immigration minister intervened. Her visa application was previously rejected because she has hepatitis B.
Claire Bickers in The Advertiser covered ($) South Australia’s missed opportunity around the Significant Investor Visa.
John West in The Interpreter analysed Sam Roggeveen’s new paper that speculates what might happen if one of the major parties in Australia stopped the immigration program:
It is a provocative idea, one I have discussed with a number of colleagues who, regrettably, mostly seem to see Roggeveen’s analysis as scaremongering in a country which has now returned to political stability and which is proudly multicultural.
The Kaldor Centre hosted its 2019 conference. Here’s the address from acting director Guy S. Goodwin-Gill.
CMO asked whether brands were ready for multicultural marketing:
The recently launched Tourism Australia 'Philausophy' campaign attracted its fair share of criticism, with many arguing the word play for international audiences, particularly in non-English speaking countries, will be confusing. It serves to highlight the many challenges of multicultural marketing and the hazards when it isn't executed with the right approach.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration released its 2020 report (pdf).
The top source countries were:
And destinations:
The Australian reported ($) a new high in temporary visas.
The Economist wrapped some of its migration coverage into one page.
The Advertiser reported ($) of a new program that puts prospective migrants in touch with people who can help explain job prospects and guide them to networks of others who have gone through similar experiences.
Dominique Schwartz at the ABC tackled regional visas with a radio story, and online feature.
And my regional visa explainer went up on YouTube.
People
Tamworth will have its biggest citizenship ceremony of the year, and possibly ever, this week, reported the Northern Daily Leader. In a huge ceremony at town hall on Thursday, 61 people are expected to be officially sworn-in as Australian citizens.
Maddie Gleeson wrote in The Interpreter that Behrouz Boochani is still in limbo.
Josh Taylor at The Guardian had a story about the Government’s justification for sending Priya, Nadesalingam, Kopika and Tharunicaa from Biloela to Christmas Island.
Population
Kevin Rudd has called for "big and bold" immigration as a way of standing up to China's aggressive rise and America's increasing isolationism, wrote the Canberra Times, and the SMH/Age, the Daily Mail, the West, the Aus ($), and 2GB
SBS reported of researchers’ belief that there's a link between the cashless welfare card and population drops in the West and South Australian towns involved in the scheme's trial.
The world
Fergus Hunter at the SMH/Age reported claims by Education Minister Dan Tehan that an official trip through India and Malaysia has laid the foundations for expanded ties with the two countries, including increased student enrolments.
The Independent on Boris Johnson’s immigration plan:
The problem with Johnson’s only “new” idea on immigration isn’t that it’s a house of cards, but a stinking pack of lies. It’s time he was called out.
And finally, net migration to the UK fell to its lowest level in six years as EU migrant numbers declined.
Thanks for following along. Catch you next Friday.
Jack