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

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

Setback for Australia's ban on phones in immigrant detention

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 

The Australian government hit a legal setback Friday in its bid to ban cell phones from immigration detention centers — a policy that critics argue would treat asylum seekers like criminals.

A judge rejected the government's submission that the Federal Court of Australia did not have jurisdiction to hear a challenge to the proposed ban.

The government has two weeks to decide whether it will appeal Justice Steven Rares' ruling. If there is no appeal, the Federal Court will hear a class-action suit by detainees who say a blanket ban on phones in all Australian immigration detention centers would be illegal.

The ban would affect hundreds of detainees on the Australian mainland and on the Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

The phone ban would not apply to asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia by boat and have been sent to immigration camps on the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Most asylum seekers arrive in Australia by plane and are kept in mainland detention centers along with foreign nationals who have breached their visa conditions and criminals who are awaiting deportation after serving prison sentences.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection had planned to confiscate all phones last month, but human rights lawyers obtained an injunction allowing inmates to keep in contact with the outside world until the legality of the new policy is decided.

George Newhouse, a senior lawyer at the National Justice Project that initiated the legal challenge, said that while phones are banned in Australian prisons, asylum seekers should not be treated like criminals.

"Seeking asylum does not make you a criminal. Mobile phones provide asylum seekers with vital access to the outside world, to loved ones and to advocates — their mental health and their families depend on this," Newhouse said.

"The blanket ban on phones punishes innocent men, women and children and demonstrates the increasing criminalization by this government of asylum seekers who have committed no crime," he added.

Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg told a Senate committee last month the ban was needed to prevent plotting of escapes and drug crimes.

"I cannot countenance running a custodial setting ... that allows mobile phones to be used as an enabler to crime," he said.

The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the court decision. Source: newsobserver

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457 visa crackdown coming for fast-food workers, Peter Dutton says

The Federal Government is cracking down on the number of 457 skilled worker visas handed out to McDonald's and other fast-food chains.

More than 500 skilled worker visas have been approved for fast-food outlets over the past four years.

Nearly 300 have worked at McDonald's, almost 100 at KFC and more than 70 at Hungry Jacks. More than 300 individual stores employ foreign staff.

More than 100,000 Australians work for McDonald's alone, while at least 13,000 are employed by Hungry Jacks.

The August 2011 census data showed that there were around 175 000 employees in "takeaway food services".

There had been a fast-track visa process for the industry after Julia Gillard's Labor Government approved the Fast Food Industry Labour Agreement in 2012, but the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has recently scrapped it.

"Australian workers, particularly young Australians, must be given priority," Mr Dutton said.

"The Turnbull Government is committed to ensuring that career pathways are available for young Australians.

"Fast-track arrangements for the fast-food industry put in place by Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen in 2012 are not consistent with putting Australian workers first."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he commended Mr Dutton for taking action on the agreement, while Treasurer Scott Morrison took aim at the former Labor government on the issue.

Speaking to Sydney radio station 2GB, Mr Morrison said Labor had handed out the visas "like confetti".

But Opposition employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said 457 workers could not take part in unskilled work.

Mr O'Connor has dismissed the announcement as a "complete lie".

"The notion that 457s can take jobs of flipping burgers means either Peter Dutton is lying or they are misapplying the 457 visa," he said.

"Secondly, there are thousands and thousands of workers, overseas workers, that are working in retail … They are working on student visas and working-holiday visas."

But Mr Dutton conceded the decision mostly affected managers and people who would be involved in the running of the business.

"There is some concern about the actual role that people were fulfilling as opposed to the role they had signed up to," he said.

"So there were a number of aspects to our consideration."

Fast-food businesses can still apply through the regular 457 process. Read More: abc

How to Apply for Australian Skilled Nominated Visa (Subclass 190)

Australian Immigration is the most favorite destination for the immigrants of the world. Immigration laws in Australia are quite friendly for the immigrants. If you are planning to apply for Australian immigration then the present time is pretty good for you. The Australian government wants to save its friendly environment from the extremists.

Skilled individuals are warmly welcomed by the Australian government. If you are a Pakistani national and looking for Australian Immigration for Pakistani then you can make your dreams true easily. The first important step in this immigration is the invitation to apply. Once you get an invitation to apply then the all next steps are very easy to follow.

If you are invited to apply for Skilled Nominated Subclass 190 visa then you have to put a deep eye over the 60 days limitation. These 60 days are very crucial because you must file the application along with all the required documents in this specific period. The whole procedure to file your application is online.

The provided data in your application will tell your interest about the category head. The Expression of Interests will disclose your interest for the post you applied. You should submit authentic proof about your skills because it will boost your application among the other applicants. If you failed to file the authentic proofs of your skill then you might lose your immigration chance for Skilled Nominated Visa.

There are three important steps to follow:

1.    Submit Online Application

2.    Documents Checklist

3.    Provide Family Particulars

Submit Online Application

The process to file your application is online. Australia introduced online application system several years ago. You must submit your application under the head of Skill select.  The original application fee must be paid through credit card. If you have dependents and they are above 18 years of age then you must pay the extra fee according to the requirements.

Documents Checklist

All the important and necessary documents must be attached with the online application. These documents show your interest in your preferred skill select head. This head is known as Documents Checklist. You must attach the original or certified copies of the documents as per the directions.  If your documents are not in the English language then you must attach the translated documents. Moreover, this translation must be done by the recognized translator. All documents must be scanned and attached properly. If you think that an additional documents or details are necessary to be uploaded then you must inform to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Provide Family Particulars

Under this head, you must provide all necessary particulars about your family and dependents; spouse, children, parents, actual partner, and same-sex mates. This is an important requirement in the process of Skilled Nominated Subclass 190 visa and for all other immigrations.

Australian Immigration is at the top of the list of all immigrations. Australia is a multicultural country and full of natural resources. Wildlife and maritime view make it more attractive place to settle.

Ciobo defends visa rules as Indonesia and Australia seek to cement trade deal

Australia’s trade minister, Steve Ciobo, has defended tough visa entry requirements for Indonesian students ahead of a high level visit to the country to complete an Australia-Indonesia trade deal.

Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will join Ciobo and a delegation of 120 Australian business people for the Indonesia-Australia Business Week (IAWB).

Indonesia is Australia’s 13th largest trading partner and Australia is hoping to get more access for vocational education and tertiary institutions to operate in Indonesia, while Indonesia wants to get access to training and education in Australia. 

Ciobo said both countries were looking to finalise the deal after a decade of negotiations. He has met his counterpart, the Indonesian trade minister Enggartiasto Lukita, 14 times since the latter came to the post in July last year.

In February, during a visit by the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, to Australia, Indonesia agreed to lower tariffs on Australian sugar from 8% to 5%, while Australia agreed to remove tariffs on pesticides and herbicides coming from Indonesian suppliers.

Ciobo said on Monday the visa requirements imposed on Indonesians looking to study in Australia were part of an overall immigration system.

Indonesians aged 18-30 who apply for visas need to show they have access to $5,000 in their bank account, provide a letter of support from the Indonesian government, show they have completed two years of undergraduate study, have good English and provide a chest X-ray.

“Anything we do, we do in the context of existing visa requirements,” Ciobo said. “That’s part and parcel of the requirements we have in terms of securing visas for people from outside of Australia. We have requirements in terms of health for things like tuberculosis but we will look at it in the context of the overall deal.”

The Australian delegation is looking for opportunities in vocational education and training, tourism, financial services and technology, water and sustainable urban design and agribusiness supply chains.

Ciobo said Australia would like to have better access for the Australian labour force.

“Tens of millions of new Indonesian households are forecast to join the middle class over the next five years, presenting significant opportunities for Australian exporters to supply the growing needs of Indonesian consumers with Australian goods and services.”

The prime minister will travel to Indonesia on Monday night. Read More: theguardian

Ontario’s Popular Immigration Streams is Reopening Next Week!

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) is going to accept applications regarding its three much popular immigration streams. These streams are as under.

• The International Masters Graduate Stream
• The Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream
• The International D. Graduate Stream

There was a temporary pause on these streams during last May, as their annual allocations have reached its limit.

Furthermore, a new user-friendly process of submitting an online application was on its way. This process will start after reopening of these OINP streams. According to the government of Ontario, this overhauled system will speed up the application process. It will allow employers to look for skilled workers in a hassle-free manner.

A clear message to the Provincial Government is out there. The following streams will experience a pause and reopen periodically.

• The International D. Graduate stream
• International Masters Graduate stream
• Human Capital Priorities stream

The basic purpose this strategy is to process existing applications in an efficient manner.

For the year 2017, overall allocations for OINP are 6,000 and include all applications related to OINP streams. No doubt, the number of allocations is going up, as the province’s allocation was just 2,500 in 2014.

International Ph.D. Graduate Stream

This Stream focuses on such individuals who graduated from one of Ontario’s publicly funded universities in a Ph.D. program. A job offer is not required for this stream as it operates outside the Express Entry System.

International Masters Graduate Stream

This specific Stream operates outside the Express Entry system. It targets individuals who have graduated from one of Ontario’s publicly funded universities, with a Master’s degree. Besides this, it is not necessary to provide a job offer.

Eligible candidates residing outside Ontario are capable of applying, once this stream reopens. It is possible for applicants to hire an alternate service provider to obtain their language test.

Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream

The reopening of Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream, will receive a great response by the candidates of federal Express Entry pool. Once this stream reopens, OINP will start looking into federal Express Entry pool to find qualified candidates. After this, eligible candidates will receive Notifications of Interest, which is an invitation to apply.

It is necessary for the candidate to be a part of Express Entry pool. In addition, the candidate must have 400 or more points in Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). The applicant can also get 600 additional CRS points if he or she obtains an OINP nomination certificate through this stream. The 400 CRS points threshold is relatively lesser than any one of the Express Entry draws, conducted previously. This may enhance the chances of eligibility under the OINP Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream.

According to a statement shared by Laura Albanese (Ontario’s Minister of Immigration), “Ontario is helping to make our province even stronger”. Further stated, “Immigration is the right key for competing in today’s global economy in a better way. This helps in growing our workforce and stimulating innovation. By attracting people with skills and abilities, we can easily fill labor market gaps.” Source: immigrationexperts

US-based Australians fear crackdown on working visas by Donald Trump

Australians living in the US have called on the Turnbull government to demand tolerance and evidence-based policy-making from Donald Trump's White House, amid concerns from employers that foreign workers could be targeted in a sweeping review of visa rules.

Speculation exists among immigration experts that Mr Trump will direct the Homeland Security, Labor and State Departments to review employment-based categories, potentially hitting thousands of Australians with work and study visas. 

Australians could be affected by any changes to the E3 specialty occupation visa, established by the George W. Bush administration specifically for Australians and available to 10,500 people each year.

One US recruiter has told clients a draft executive order being considered by Mr Trump would direct a wholesale review of a range of popular visas to assess whether foreign workers are disadvantaging American citizens, with possible restrictions to student visas also being considered. 

Mr Trump's chaotic first two weeks has prompted more than 225 Australians living across 15 states of the US to sign an open letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, calling on the federal government to publicly endorse values including trade, respect for institutions, independent media and freedom from discrimination as part of the Australia-US relationship.

Signatories include Australian employees of Facebook, Google, Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group and PwC, as well students at leading universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, the University of California, Columbia, and New York University.

Matt Tyler, a public policy masters student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said many Australians were alarmed by Mr Trump's actions and rhetoric and hoped the federal government would use political and diplomatic representation to push back on infringements by the administration.  

"In the midst of rapid changes, there is a risk that behaviours undermining the fabric of society and democracy are normalised," he said. 

"To prevent this, a set of fundamental values are a useful starting point. As Australians at the coalface of changes playing out in the US, we are in a unique position to ask the Australian government to publicly clarify the values underpinning the US-Australia relationship.

"There is fear and uncertainty regarding the status of visas. Some are concerned that the E3 visa will be caught up in a review of the broader H1B visa although there has been no indication from Washington as to whether this is the case." 

Karissa Domondon, chief of staff at clean technology start-up Global Thermostat in New York, said answers were needed from both governments.

​"I've received numerous questions from Australia in my network about possible changes to foreign worker visas, but we can't say anything for certain.  This ambiguity has created some unease. 

"I moved to the US at a time when there was still significant optimism around the Paris 2015 climate agreement.  The depth of climate change entrepreneurship [and] public debate on climate change has been eye-opening, but I'm concerned about climate change action being put on the back-burner," she said. Source: smh

Australian tourists visiting the U.S. 'forced to take in-person INTERVIEWS' before being granted visas under tough new Donald Trump border control laws

Australian tourists may be forced to undergo an interview with U.S. officials under Donald Trump's tough new border control plans.
The president is considering an executive order that would suspend a 90-day tourist visa program that allows visitors to enter the U.S. simply by filling out an online form with biographical information.

This means tourists would have to sit an interview in person before entering the U.S., the Los Angeles reported.
The newspaper cited a draft executive order which would immediately suspend the Visa Interview Waiver Program.

This means 'all individuals seeking a non-immigrant visa, undergo an in-person interview, subject to specific statutory exceptions'.
If this happens, Australians wishing to visit the U.S. on a tourist visa would have to queue for hours at a U.S. consulate, as visitors seeking work visas already do.

They would bring their passport and be asked about their criminal history.
The news comes a day after New South Wales Christian conservative politician Fred Nile revealed he was denied a U.S. visa, to witness President Trump's inauguration, for security reasons. 

President Trump is also considering blocking all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days and banning people from Muslim terror hot spots, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The draft order temporarily suspends the US refugee program while new vetting procedures are put in place and stops refugees from Syria being admitted indefinitely until a security screening review is completed.

Many of the asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island, who tried to reach Australia, are from Syria and the other targeted terror hot spot countries.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has confirmed President Trump will announce details of his 'Keeping America Safe' plan later this week.

It could affect Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's deal with former president Barack Obama's administration to have asylum seekers from Nauru and Manus Island sent to the United States.

Powerful members of the Republican-controlled Congress were outraged when it was revealed Turnbull and Obama had struck the agreements without their input.
If Trump torpedoes the refugee deal it will be the second major blow he has delivered to the Australian prime minister this week.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday withdrawing America's involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement with Australia and 10 other Pacific countries.
The Australian government, however, is holding out hope the strong relationship Australia has with the U.S. will keep the refugee deal alive.

'We look forward to working with President Trump, his administration, and in particular Secretary of Homeland Security General John Kelly, on this issue and many others of shared interest in the years ahead,' Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told AAP on Wednesday.

'We will continue to work with our friends in the United States on the arrangement but will not provide a running commentary through the media.'  Source: dailymail