Melbourne’s Immigration Museum removes offensive Anzac Day post after complaint

MELBOURNE’S taxpayer-funded Immigration Museum is under fire for allegedly supporting an offensive Anzac Day post by Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

An article posted on the museum’s Facebook page defended Ms Abdel-Magied’s controversial comment: “LEST. WE. FORGET. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine ...).”

The ABC presenter later removed her post and issued an apology of sorts in the wake of fierce criticism.

The museum’s post was a link to a Junkee piece by Osman Faruqi titled “These Anzac Day ‘Controversies’ Reveal The Huge Hypocrisy of Australian Conservatives”.

Mr Faruqi mentioned “refugees our government has locked up on Manus Island and Nauru”, and Syrians and Palestinians experiencing long-running conflicts.

“The idea that we can somehow excise discussion around these wars and the refugees they produce, on a day that is supposed to be about reflecting on war and its consequences, doesn’t make much sense,” he wrote.

Institute of Public Affairs spokesman Simon Breheny said it was extraordinary that a Victorian taxpayer-funded entity would “double down in support of Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s offensive Anzac Day Facebook post”.

‘The Immigration Museum should not be given public funding to push a radical left wing agenda,” he said.

“Sharing left-wing Junkee articles on Facebook is an activity expected from undergraduates, not taxpayer-funded museums.”

The museum removed the post after the Herald Sun sought comment on the issue.

Museums Victoria spokesman Rod Macneil said the Immigration Museum was unequivocally not seeking to promote a particular viewpoint.

“The Museum aims to be a place where the diversity of Australian voices can be represented, heard, considered and discussed,” he said.

“The article shared on the Museum’s Facebook page was not intended to promote any particular individual or group.”

The museum, located in Old Customs House, is currently running the exhibition Stories From Detention, which “explores personal stories from people who have sought or are seeking asylum and refuge in Australia”.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is reportedly considering a request to dump Ms Abdel-Magied from her taxpayer-funded position on the Council for Australian-Arab Relations. Source: heraldsun

Australia's elite universities seize opportunity of Malcolm Turnbull's India visit to boost student numbers

For Australia's prestigious research universities, the Group of Eight (Go8), this week's visit to India by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Simon Birmingham is an opportunity to be seized.

It could help solve a major problem, which is that they are very reliant on China for their lucrative international student business, to a far greater degree than the university sector as a whole.

Chinese students are a goldmine for the Go8. Of the 113,000 Chinese students enrolled in Australian universities last year, 53 per cent were in the eight elite universities.

This is because Chinese students tend to be status conscious and flock to the most highly-ranked institutions, which in Australia means the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australia, as well as Monash, UNSW and the Australian National University.

This is, on the face of it, a great thing for these research intensive universities because the stream of revenue from China helps pay for a volume and quality of research which government funding alone would never be enough to cover.

Downside

The downside is that the Go8 are now highly reliant on China and, if the Chinese economy dips, their research programs will be in deep trouble.

An obvious way to spread the risk would be to increase student numbers from India, the other rapidly developing country with a billion-plus population which is hungry for education. ​

But so far it's proved hard for the Go8 to diversify. The eight elite universities had only 9 per cent of the 45,000 Indian students enrolled in Australian universities last year. Although India has a thriving middle-class who seek a prestigious overseas education for their children, this top level demographic is more fixated on universities in the US and Britain.

For Indians as a whole, studying in Australia is often seen as a pathway to immigration. This means they choose degrees at cheaper universities than the Go8.

But now things have changed. Donald Trump is US President. Britain has committed to its exit from the European Union, and tightened visa conditions for international students. In most of the Western world nativist movements are growing in influence and students from other cultures feel distinctly unwelcome.

Opportunity

It's an opportunity Australia can use in a positive way, says Vicki Thomson, the Go8's CEO. Now more top international students are likely to think seriously about coming to Australia's prestige universities.

To help get the message out, five Go8 vice-chancellors have joined the 120-strong education delegation which has gone to India with Turnbull and Birmingham.

If the Go8 can enrol more Indians it will help solve another problem they have, which is that international students have a very high preference for business degrees. Sometimes 80-90 per cent of students in business courses can be Mandarin speaking.

If more Indian students enrol it will ease this problem because Indians are more diverse in their fields of study. Whereas 62 per cent of Chinese students in postgraduate courses in Go8 universities are doing business degrees, only 28 per cent of Indians are. Indians are also strongly represented in postgraduate engineering courses (22 per cent) and IT courses (21 per cent).

It is a similar picture for undergraduate degrees where 45 per cent of Chinese students are doing business degrees, but only 27 per cent of Indians.

The Indian student market has always been volatile. It collapsed in 2010 after scandals in private vocational colleges and a series of attacks on Indian students. Jonathan Chew, from the consulting firm Nous Group, points out that while the number of Indian students today has recovered to the level before the slump, the composition has changed.

India is now a mainly higher education, not a vocational education, market for Australia. But the Go8 universities need to get a larger share of Indian students to mitigate their China risk. Source: afr

Now You Can Get Admission in Brock University Canada

Universities in Canada are providing a quality education to the students. Brock University is one of these universities in which seven best faculties are providing the high standard academic environment. There are approximately 18000 students getting an education from all over the world.

Brock University is performing a role in character building among the students. The students in this university are not just students but a community. These students are aiming at a high standard future with a perfect job. They are also experiencing recreational and curricular activities in this university. Moreover, there are many clubs and physical health departments to make their students active and completing the daily challenges.

Without further ado, let’s put a deep eye over the available degrees of Canadian Brock University:

Department of Education

• Master of Education (ISP)
• Master of Education

Department of Mathematics and Science

• Master of Science in Physics
• Master of Science in Biotechnology
• Master of Science in Chemistry
• Master of Science in Biological Sciences
• Master of Science in Computer Science
• Master of Science in Mathematics and Statistics
• Master of Science in Earth Sciences
• Master of Science in Materials Physics (ISP)

Department of Applied Health Sciences

• Master of Arts/Master of Science in Applied Health Sciences
• Master of Public Health

Department of Humanities

• Master of Arts in Classics
• Master of Arts in Studies in Comparative Literature and Arts
• Master of Arts in English
• Master of Arts in Canadian-American Studies
• Master of Arts in History
• Master of Arts in Philosophy

Goodman School of Business

• International Master of Accountancy
• Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
• Master of Science in Management
• Master of Accountancy
• Graduate Diploma in Accountancy
• Master of Business Administration

Department of Social Sciences

• Master of Arts in Social Justice and Equity Studies
• Master of Applied Disability Studies
• Master of Arts in Critical Sociology
• Graduate Diploma in Applied Disability Studies
• Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (Bridged Entry)
• Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (Direct Entry)
• Master of Business Economics
• Master of Arts in Geography
• Master of Arts in Psychology
• Master of Arts in Child and Youth Studies
• Master of Arts in Applied Disability Studies
• Master of Sustainability
• Master of Arts in Political Science
• Master of Arts in Popular Culture

Source of Brock Degrees: brocku

Requirements

• You must have 60% marks in the last relevant degree.
• You must pass the IELTS in minimum of 6.5 IELTS Score to Move for Canada.

If you are a Pakistani Student and looking for Canadian Student Visa then the doors of Brock University is open for you as for other students from the world. Canada is very popular country by providing a lot of immigration streams to the international students. Canadian Student Visa is one of these attractive streams.

NZ's tighter policies lead to big fall in Pacific migration

Tighter immigration policies have led to significant falls in the number of approved Pacific migrants over the last five years.

Despite record immigration levels in New Zealand, the number of Pasifika people being allowed in to the country in some categories has dropped by 28 percent since 2012.

A Samoan woman who wished to remain anonymous has been advocating for her two nieces to get residency in New Zealand.

While the girls' parents are both New Zealand citizens, applications to get both children a visitors visa longer than three months have been turned down, multiple times.

"One time we sent the applications through, one of the applications came back for the older girl saying saying that she needed a police certificate, " the woman claimed.

"So I went in to the Manukau branch and I said 'I don't understand'. So [the immigration officer] went and spoke to her manager and came back and says 'no we require a police certificate from Samoa'."

The woman said she was shocked at the response, given that the girl is only two years old.

The family said they were struggling financially to renew the visitors visas every three months just to keep the girls in the country legally.

Immigration lawyer Richard Small has been working with migrants from the pacific for over 20 years and said the impact on the pacific region had become increasingly heavy.

"It has been getting more difficult and progressively so. But that has really accelerated with the changes in the family area. There's been far more restriction."

Mr Small believed immigration policies did not strike a fair balance between bringing in skilled workers and valuing family relationships.

"There are many, many hurdles to just do basic things that go to the core of the identity of these families, that they need to be together with their loved ones," he said

"Now when there's a clear benefit, we need to have an open mind. We're not finding that. We're finding usually a closed door, in fact a locked door."

Minister of Pacific Peoples Alfred Ngaro said while the impact on Pacific families was significant, they weren't the only ones affected.

"I know in the family category for instance we've had less approved applications from all countries, not just the pacific, it's right across the board. So this is not something that's a trend for pacific" he explained.

mmigration New Zealand's Assistant Manager Geoff Scott, agreed.

"I would suspect that those figures would probably be quite consistent across the globe for all areas because the very fact that it's a capped category does mean that the oversubscription does occur."

But figures released to RNZ International under the Official Information Act showed that while the number of Pacific applicants approved each year under the Capped Family residence had dropped by 28 percent since 2012, the overall number of applicants approved each year had relatively stayed the same in that period.

And it was a similar fall in the Skilled Migrant category, even though the number of approved applicants each year overall has gone up by nearly 7000 in the last five years.

Mr Small said even if tighter policies weren't explicitly targeting the pacific, the criteria had clearly had that effect. Read More: radionz

Immigration Department set to deport grandmother who arrived in Australia as a two-year-old

Maryanne Caric has not left Australia since she arrived with her parents as a two-year-old from the then Republic of Yugoslavia, and does not speak Croatian.

On March 1, Ms Caric, a convicted drug offender detained in Sydney's Villawood detention centre, was handed deportation papers. She has no connections in Croatia, and as far as she knows, will receive no financial or health support.

It's a case that raises questions about where Australia's obligations lie, and what responsibility we have for our citizens and non-citizens.

Ms Caric has been caught up in legislative changes introduced in 2014 which, among other provisions, made it mandatory that any non-citizen who was sentenced to imprisonment of 12 months or more, would have their visas cancelled.

A statement to The Law Report from the Department of Immigration said: "The vast majority of this group has committed serious or violent crimes."

When a migrant is deemed to have failed the character test under Section 501 of the Migration Act, their visa is cancelled. Many of these so-called "501s" have been New Zealanders.

Visa cancellations can be revoked by ministerial intervention, but in most cases that doesn't happen. In Ms Caric's case, Mr Hawke has acknowledged her likely fate in Croatia.

In his decision, obtained by The Law Report, he said: "I accept that having been away from her country of origin for close to 50 years and having no personal support network there, together with her health and substance abuse issues, that it would be extremely difficult for her to make the necessary adjustments to life there."

'I thought I was living as an Australian'

Ms Caric, who is also known by her birth name, Mirjana, is a lifelong drug user and offender. She is not sure how many years she has spent in jail. "In the double figures," she said in an interview from Villawood detention centre.

Many of her convictions were for possession, but she has also been convicted of supply, and of trafficking — a definition which can apply to supplying more than three people.

None of the offences were violent. "I've never broken in to people's houses or anything like that," she said.

Ms Caric left home in Brisbane at 14, fleeing a violent alcoholic father. Her older sister Katrina had already left, after marrying at 16. Katrina would continue to look out for Maryanne over the tumultuous years that followed.

At some point Maryanne, who has a broad Australian accent, slipped through the citizenship net. Katrina became a citizen when she married, and she later organised her parents' citizenship papers.

But Maryanne wasn't around at the time. She told The Law Report she never thought about visas or citizenship.

"I thought I was living as an Australian," she said.

"I class myself as an Australian. I have never been anywhere else. I've never left the country. I've never wanted to."

In Mr Hawke's decision, he said: "I find that the Australian community would expect non-citizens to obey Australian laws while in Australia."

Ms Caric's lawyer, Jason Donnelly, who wrote her submission to revoke the visa cancellation, said the decision not to revoke is "unreasonable in the moral sense".

"I think if you are a non-citizen who has only lived here for a small portion of your life, then I would probably say there is very good reason for Australia exercising its sovereignty to deport that person to their country of national origin," he said.

"However, for all intents and purposes Maryanne, coming here as a two-year-old, is Australian. And I think Australia does need to exercise a fundamental sense of compassion."

Caric received official warnings

In the latter half of her life, Ms Caric was officially warned, twice, in 2007 and 2010, that further criminal activity could result in deportation. She said she thought about applying for citizenship then, but figured there was little chance with her criminal record.

Mr Donnelly, who is a barrister and migration agent and lectures at the University of Western Sydney, queries these "so-called warnings", which are often given to people while they are in prison.

"They're often without the benefit of a lawyer, even often without the benefit of Legal Aid," he said.

"They don't often understand the legal effect of what those warnings mean. Read More: abc

Work visas restored to specialized Canadian nurses working in U.S.

After a week of confusion, U.S. border officials are once again granting professional work visas to specialized Canadian nurses working at American hospitals. 

Nurses and hospitals have been in a frenzy in the past week as visa applications for advanced practice nurses and advanced clinical nurse practitioners working in Detroit hospitals were denied.

Canadian citizens holding these positions in the U.S. have been approved for non-immigrant professional (TN) visas under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for years.

But that recently changed when nurses applying for renewals and new visas were being denied, according to officials at Henry Ford Hospital. At least one Henry Ford nurse was turned away at the border last week. 

A U.S. Customs spokesperson, on Friday, said the agency needed to get clarification on whether the specialized Canadian nurses qualified for TN visas.

"These nurses fall under the registered nurse (category) of the TN visa status," said Kristoffer Grogan, public affairs officer with U.S. Customs.

That clarification came Friday after members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association contacted customs to find out why the nurse applications were being rejected, even though they had been approved for years.

"They said the issue is being sorted out and nurses who are otherwise eligible will be able to enter the United States," said Melanie Goldberg, vice-chairperson of the association's Michigan chapter. 

Immigration lawyer Drew Porter said he believes the issue stems from someone suddenly having a different interpretation of nurses as defined under NAFTA.

"This issue has been resolved and the nurses can return to the port of entry on Monday," said Porter, a U.S. lawyer based in Windsor, Ont. who is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Staff at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit said they have heard from several nurses who had been denied the TN work visas, despite having them for years.

Patti Kunkel was one of many nurses worried when people started having their visa applications denied. The advanced clinical nurse practitioner, who lives in LaSalle — a small community near Windsor — and works at Henry Ford was worried the changes would affect all nurses.

"I was asked about my visa and when the expiry of my visa was, which concerns me because I'm always worried I could get pulled in (to secondary inspection)," she said Thursday, describing her experience crossing the border. Source: ca news