Harsh demands on immigrants New Fed Govt regulations discriminate against poor migrants The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 17th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian Subscription rates on request. ****************************** By Tom Pearson >From July 1 the Howard Government will introduce another wave of immigration regulations that will swing access to residency and citizenship even further away from applicants applying on humanitarian and family reunion grounds. The regulations contain a new points test based on work experience, occupations "in demand", skills of the applicant's spouse and fluency in other languages in addition to English. These planned changes are an extension of the policy line the Government has ruthlessly pursued of favouring richer applicants and discriminating against the majority. This was seen with the introduction last November of the Aged Parent visa that imposes fees and charges of $16,000 on residents seeking to have their two parents join them. There are over 20,000 parent applicants waiting, but with a government cap of 3,000 per year plus the $16,000 cost, they face waits of ten years or more. "The harsh reality is that some of those parents waiting in the queue could die before they reach Australia", said the Chairman of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW, Paul Nicalaou. He said this was striking at the heart of Australian families and means that "the rich can get ahead in the queue and obtain their visas. There are lots of people who cannot afford to fork out $16,000." The new points system planed for July 1 will favour "applicants nominating professional or trades occupations", such as computers or accountancy, those aged between 35 and 44 years, and those fluent "in a language in addition to English". Those who will receive "bonus points" include applicants "with at least $100,000 to invest in Australia", and those whose spouse meets "basic age, skill and language requirements". Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock earlier this month demonstrated the Government's utter disregard for the majority of residency applicants when he threatened to cap the Parent Reunion program from 3,000 down to 500 if the Democrats blocked the new system in the Senate. This would mean, said Ruddock, that people "currently waiting 3-5 years to get in to this country will have to wait 30 years instead". Adding to the hardship, refugee and family reunion applicants are denied social security payments for two years and are charged $5,000 for access to Medicare. In addition, many migrants must pay $5,000 for English language classes before they are granted a visa. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
