Dissatisfaction with immigration grows in Vic.

Swinburne University
People and Place Journal
Volume 16, Issue 3 (2008)
Katharine Betts

Immigration has increased considerably since the late 1990s and between 2004 and 2007 the proportion of voters who want the intake to be reduced rose from 34 per cent to 46 per cent. While support for a reduction was highest in New South Wales, this support was already high in 2004. In relative terms support for a reduction rose most strongly in Victoria. This may be because, over the four-year period, Melbourne absorbed a greater proportion of Australia’s population growth than any other region. Despite growing electoral disquiet, the new Labor Government is increasing the immigration program to record levels. (Abstract)

Swinburne Uni Research News

From a conventional economic perspective these years were rosy, so it is unusual to see support for immigration decline so steeply in such circumstances. According to Betts’ “one possibility is that the immediate negative consequences of rapid population growth became evident to more people: rising house prices and rents, pressure to increase residential densities in previously low-density suburbs, increased congestion on the roads, pressure on hospitals and health services and overcrowding on public transport.”

These changes were felt most in Victoria: “This may be because, over the four-year period, Melbourne absorbed a greater proportion of Australia’s population growth than any other region,” said Betts.

Despite this growing electoral disquiet, the new Labor Government is increasing the immigration program to record levels. The total planned permanent intake for 2008-2009 stands at 203,800.

According to Betts’ report, the demographic trajectory that the new Government has committed itself to has minimal electoral support. “Urban congestion and declining housing affordability suggest that the disjunction between this policy and popular feeling may not be easy to ignore over the long term."

Apart from congestion, other explanations probably don't pass the PC filter to get a mention by Betts. Like, as the amount and degree of diversity increases, so does the backlash. Isn't that what Professor Putnam found? It could just be Melbourne catching up to Sydney.

Melbourne's African intake has increased in recent years. Would that rate a mention by Betts? 40 percent of Australians believe that certain ethnic groups do not belong here (Middle Easterners and Africans rating high). Wouldn't it make sense that if you have more African immigrants then you might also have more of a backlash? You'd have to pay $16 to find out if Betts mentions this, but I'd say it's unlikely.

Nope, humans, according to much of academia, only concern themselves with economics and infrastructure. Racial solidarity, linguistic cohesion, crime, culture, and religion are all capable of "disjunction between this policy and popular feeling" but they don't pass the PC filter to rate a mention. Such is the socially vacuous state of our PC filtered universities.

H/T: Eye on Immigration

Nixon fudged African crime figures

November 19, 2008
Andrew Bolt

But here’s the central point. Last year Nixon told us Sudanese refugees, if not all African refugees, were “under-represented in the crime statistics”. In fact, we now know they’re over-represented—by as much as eight times.

Andrews was right to worry and urge caution. Nixon was wrong to challenge his figures. And we, who relied on Nixon’s assurances, were grossly unfair to damn Andrews as a racist and a hatemonger for merely doing his duty. I’m sorry for my part in that.

Read it all. It's good, but unfortunately Bolt does not oppose African immigration per se, he only proposes a slowing down until we settle the African crime rate. But, as an experimentalist, he should have looked overseas and seen the high crime rates in the US, UK, France, etc, and opposed black immigration here until those overseas countries showed us that multiracial utopia is possible - and they haven't done that yet. So, as an immigration scientist, Andrew Bolt demonstrates a stubborn reckless streak by happily repeating those failed experiments here.

But, regardless of crime rates, there are other dimensions to oppose African immigration: aesthetics, the loss of social capital, the reluctance of employers to hire foreigners, informal segregation in suburbs and schools and universities, Islamification, national security, terrorism, etc. Does anybody bother to quantify those dimensions with statistics?

Note, Bolt has previously taken a somewhat stronger stance against African immigration:

We can ignore all this, as we usually, do and shout “racist” at those who point out that we have a problem.

But we need to rethink just how - or even whether - we resettle immigrants whose culture is so very, very different.

Today would have been a good time to echo that last line, don't you think?

Fears our crime being imported

March 09, 2008
Herald Sun

... those born in Somalia, Lebanon and New Zealand had the highest crime-per-population rates in Victoria... followed by Turkish, Vietnamese and then Australian-born criminals...

The Crimes Victims Support Association has called for migrant groups committing less crime to be favoured over "high crime" nationalities.

Spokesman Noel McNamara said migrants should be deported on their first offence and there should be a cooling-off period for citizenship.

"We should be much stricter on who we bring in," Mr McNamara said.

"A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument".

Murdoch is an open-borders nation destroyer

2 November 2008
Rupert Murdoch, Boyer Lecture

... Australia has many advantages... include being an open, democratic and multi-racial society, built on the rule of law.

... a need ... to maintain a liberal immigration system ...

Australia will be strong only if it is open to immigration. Thank goodness we are beyond where we were a few decades ago. After World War Two, we opened our doors to Southern Europe and other non-Anglo populations. And after the Vietnam War we began welcoming our neighbours in the region. In a relatively short period of time, we have buried 'White Australia', and in its place have raised a modern, diverse society.

This does not mean we are neutral or valueless. We must expect immigrants to learn our language and embrace the principles that make Australia a decent and tolerant nation. At the same time, Australia needs to recognise that immigrants bring energy, skills and enthusiasm. They often better recognise the virtues of Australian society, virtues that we are too shy or embarrassed to laud.

In my view, Australians should not worry because other people want to come to our country. The day to worry is when immigrants are no longer attracted to our shores. We should be a beacon to all. To our region in particular, we should be a living, happy, civil and contesting democracy that is a model for the emerging democracies around us.

Bah humbug. The logic of a civic nationalism is toward its own dissolution. Demography is destiny, and diverse immigration is just a sleepwalk to segregation and ethnic conflict. Tell him he's dreamin.

Migration not helping skills shortage

October 16, 2008

Registered nurses, dentists, engineers, radiographers, urban planners, occupational therapists, electricians, bakers, bricklayers, mechanics, carpenters and chefs are among the top 20 occupational shortage areas identified by the states and territories.

But Immigration Department data shows overseas students under the skilled immigration category are flocking instead into hospitality management, welfare studies, hairdressing, accounting, cookery and computing.

Rudd's record immigration 'dangerous'

October 08, 2008
Andrew Bolt

EVEN on the day it was announced, the Rudd Government's plan to import a million extra people in just three years seemed stupid.

Now, as stock markets melt and shares shrivel, it's positively dangerous.

Question: ... Why does it plan in its first term to import the equivalent of the population of Adelaide when even Prime Minister Kevin Rudd concedes unemployment is about to climb?

Oh, sorry - you didn't know Rudd had so ramped up immigration?

Don't blame yourself. He never mentioned in his campaign launch last year that he had any such intention...

... most states have got out of the habit of laying on the essential infrastructure we need for ourselves, let alone for migrants as well.

These are now green times, so they hate building dams... So how are they going to offer land, water, power and transport to more than 500,000 permanent newcomers ...

But I said Rudd's plan was not just dumb but now dangerous.

Here's why. We may hate to admit it, but we today struggle to assimilate some groups of migrants as well as we once did -- especially those with poor skills and worse English. In NSW, for instance, Lebanese-born citizens are twice more likely as the rest of us to be jailed. In Melbourne, police battle ethnic gangs of African refugees...

Audio: Evans - study shows migration boosts economy

Lyndal Curtis speaks with Immigration Minister
August 22, 2008

Immigration Minister Chris Evans speaks to Lyndal Curtis about a report which shows that with the exception of two groups, migrants contribute significantly to the economy.

Media Release, Chris Evans
Migration program boosts economy and eases skills shortage

A report by respected economic analyst Access Economics shows that new migrants to Australia deliver hundreds of millions of dollars to the Commonwealth budget and the broader economy every year.

In a speech to the Australian Mines and Metals Association in Perth today, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said that the overall fiscal impact of migration is substantially positive and grows over time in real terms.

In its Migrant Fiscal Impact Model: 2008 Update, Access looked at the costs that migrants impose on health, education, welfare, employment and settlement services compared to the fiscal benefits from taxation and visa charges.

For the 2006-07 migration program, Access estimated a total benefit of $536 million in the first year, then another $856 million in year two, growing steadily over time to reach $1.34 billion by year 20.

‘Applying the same modelling to the 2007-08 migration program, the net fiscal benefit is $610 million in year one, $965 million in year two then growing to $1.5 billion by year 20,’ Senator Evans said.

‘The forecast for the 2008-09 migration program is for an $829 million benefit in the first year, $1.16 billion in the second year, then $1.8 billion by year 20.’

Senator Evans said the Access modelling dispelled the myth that new migrants imposed a huge impost on the taxpayer.

‘The positive fiscal impact is particularly pronounced for skilled migrants, which reflects their high rate of labour market participation and higher incomes which in turn leads to a high level of direct tax receipts,’ Senator Evans said.

‘Migrants also contribute to the broader economy through spending on goods and services.

‘As well as the economic benefits, skilled migrants help Australian employers fill critical labour gaps at a time many businesses are facing capacity constraints.

‘The bottom line is that our migration program is vital to keep the economy growing as well as helping Australian businesses overcome skills and labour shortages.

‘Australia is facing a demographic shift that will see more people retire than join the workforce so the permanent skilled migration program provides a stable, effective and targeted source of skilled workers.’

Australia’s migration program increased annually over the last decade under the previous government to the point where the 2007-08 migration program was the biggest provided by Australia since the 1960s.

The 2007-08 migration program comprised 108 540 places (68 per cent) in the skilled migration stream and 49 870 places (31 per cent) in the family migration stream. Another 13 000 refugee and humanitarian visas were granted in 2007-08.

Last year’s intake represents a seven per cent increase on the 2006-07 migration program which totalled 158 960 places, of which two thirds (97 920) were skilled migrants.

The 2008-09 migration and humanitarian program is expected to total 203 000 visa grants, with 133 500 allocated for skilled migrants, 13 500 places for refugee and humanitarian entrants and a further 56 500 places in the family stream.

The PDF report is at the above link. It's probably mostly propaganda. Ross Gittins says the per capita income gain from immigration is chicken feed, and the case against immigration is stronger than the rest of us realise. Ditto says the House of Lords. Harvard economist George Borjas said the debate over immigration actually shouldn’t be about the economic benefits, as they "seem much too small".

Call for Australia to be health travel destination

August 21, 2008

The Australian Tourism Export Council has appointed a panel to investigate the benefits and risks of offering international travellers beauty and spa treatments, counselling and some forms of elective surgery.

The council's managing director Matthew Hingerty says other countries are already in the market.

"We believe that we can model the development of health tourism in the same way that we have built education tourism into a $10 billion annual industry for Australia," he said.

Oh yes, we need even more foreigners here.

Labor gearing for mobile internationalisation of labour

May 17, 2008

"... the greatest modernisation of the architecture of the Australian economy ever contemplated in our peacetime history."

Rudd and Swan have launched a nation-building revolution invoking old but enduring Labor mythologies... It begins with the effort to expand and recast migration. In the 2008-09 budget, the total intake for immigration and temporary people movement is near 300,000, and this leap is just the start.

... Immigration Minister Chris Evans says Australia needs "a great national debate over the next few years" about the need to import not just skilled but semi-skilled and unskilled workers. "The system's creaking at the moment because it is unresponsive to new demands and new realities," he says.

... He wants a "serious overhaul" of the system. It is urgent because migration "is based on a model that is out of date", still anchored in the 1950s and '60s and not geared to the mobile internationalisation of labour in the 21st century.

"The demands of business are hitting us in the face," Evans says. His experiences as a West Australian aware of acute shortages and capacity constraints drives this urgency...

"The debate about temporary migration, quite frankly, is over." ...

The program's transformation will be a challenge for economic and social policy for trade unions, a test of Australia's racial and cultural maturity, and the next step in gearing the nation's labour market to global realities. It becomes a vital instrument in managing the resources boom.

In their first budget, Rudd and Swan did something they never promised: the biggest annual increase in migrants since the inception of the scheme...

Australian labour shortages are here to stay. They are driven by economics and demography. With the retirement of the baby boomers, limits to female workforce participation and the permanence of the China-India resources boom, immigration is returning to centre stage in dramatic fashion.

Evans stresses the dynamic of contemporary people movement. "Last year upwards of 500,000 people came into this country with working rights: holiday-makers, students and so on," he says. A further trend is onshore migration, whereby students and 457 visa holders convert to become migrants...

At the same time, habits of native-born Australians are changing. "We can't get Australians to work in abattoirs in rural Queensland," Evans says. "We've got Brazilian meat workers here who want to convert to migration, and their employers want this, too." ...

These reformist plans will stimulate the race debate.

"There's always, frankly, the race issue," he says. "One of the challenges is that source countries are changing. We still get 25 per cent of the program from Britain but we are seeing an increase from India, China, the Philippines and South America off a small base." He agrees it will be tricky to persuade the unions and the public to accept unskilled labour. But this is a debate Australia cannot avoid.

There goes the community. There goes the social cohesion. There goes relaxed and comfortable. Free trade isn't so free anymore. Society is an expendable instrument in managing the resources boom. Hands up who wants a resource boom now?

Chris Evans on John Howards' immigration legacy

May 17, 2008

Rudd builds on Howard's legacy. Evans says: "One of the ironies is that John Howard convinced the Australian public that he was a small-migration man with the rhetoric about 'who comes to this country'. But the migration program continued to grow under Howard." This understates the Howard phenomenon. After cutting the intake initially, Howard became a silent convert. Immigration doubled during his era from 82,000 in Keating's last year to 159,000 in Howard's final year. But Rudd, unlike Howard, cannot conceal what he is doing.

And then Asian immigrants voted Howard out. Goose.

Audio: paying to be permanent, ABC radio

17 August 2008 (Background Briefing - 50 minutes)

A high number of people who get Australian permanent resident visas don't get the skilled jobs they are trained for. And there are scams aplenty in the world of international students looking for any way to stay here.

Long, but worth a listen.

Aboriginals and Abbott criticise guest worker scheme

August 20, 2008

THE powerful Kimberley Land Council says a Federal Government plan to import Pacific Islanders to pick fruit in rural communities is "shameful".

The council has thrown its weight behind Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott, who says Aborigines will feel cheated when they see Pacific Islanders being paid to pick fruit while they languish on welfare...

"The kind of money which employers are putting up to bring them in and repatriate them would be much better invested in getting local Aboriginal people a start in the local economy," Mr Abbott told The Australian yesterday...

Kimberley Land Council boss Wayne Bergmann accuses the Government of taking "the easy option" instead of investing in its most disadvantaged citizens...

As Mr Mundine put it: "If you're going to fly people from the Pacific islands, what's wrong with flying people from Cape York, for instance. Or Karratha, or Melbourne, or Sydney, or Brisbane, or Nhulunbuy."

Guest worker program may be expanded

August 18, 2008

Pacific nations are queuing up to take part in Australia's pilot guest worker program but will have to wait at least 18 months before Canberra considers expanding the scheme.

The government has confirmed it will offer 2,500 visas to workers from Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to come to Australia for up to seven months a year to work in the horticultural industry.

August 19, 2008

For Australia, several industry sectors including transport, mining, health and aged services are experiencing shortages of high and low-skilled labour. The National Farmers Federation recently released a report restating its view that the sector requires an estimated 100,000 additional workers. The NFF has called for temporary entry for unskilled workers to fill an unspecified number of jobs (possibly 70,000) in industries such as horticulture. Given Australian demand for low and unskilled labour and the Pacific supply of young people wanting work experience and higher wages, one may wonder why there would be any opposition.

When you factor in the white flight from rural jobs, which will follow the arrival of guest workers, pretty soon you'll find that most rural jobs will be handed over to foreigners. Many white Australians will regard the rural industry as yet another no-go zone to avoid. The rural sector will become largely white farmers and their immigrant workers. Once again, the white community is left asking: is there any place to call home? Is there any native title for us? Social cohesion is bulldozed by economics.

Screening X-rays not enough for TB control

28 July 2008
Dr Linda Calabresi

Current screening for TB in migrants coming to Australia is inadequate, infectious diseases experts suggest.

Following their review (link) of laboratory confirmed TB cases in Victoria between 1990 to 2004, the researchers claim the results “raise the question of whether it is possible to eliminate TB from a low incidence country with ongoing immigration from high prevalence countries.”

Over the 15 year study period, there were 3191 confirmed cases of the disease, representing 77% of notifications, with the rate of cases rising by over 50% over the time.

Overall, more than 80% of these cases were in non-Australian born individuals, according to the Communicable Diseases Intelligence report. The highest proportion of non-Australian born cases have been from South East Asia, but the proportion of cases in people born African countries has been increasing, reflecting changing migration patterns.

Indonesia detains Afghan asylum seekers bound for Aust

Aug 16, 2008

Police in eastern Indonesia have confirmed that nine Afghan asylum seekers planning to travel to Australia have been detained on the island of Flores.

The nine men and one Indonesian organiser were arrested on Wednesday night...

Mr Hello says none of the men can speak English and only one is carrying a passport.

The police intend to hand the Afghans over to the International Organisation for Migration tomorrow.

Refugees need University's support, VIC

15 August 2008

A landmark report by Victoria University’s (VU) Institute for Community, Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives (ICEPA) offers a best practice model for the tertiary education and training sector to improve access for refugees.

Report co-author and ICEPA Director, Associate Professor Danny Ben-Moshe, said the report calls for a systematic approach to educational service provision to help refugee students overcome the major barriers they face when seeking access to TAFE and Higher Education...

The best practice model recommended by the report includes:

* fee relief (most refugees say they cannot participate in education without this),
* support with transport (particularly in rural and regional areas),
* waver of materials costs,
* the provision of role models and mentors (ideally other refugees who have now settled and can appreciate the experience of new arrivals) and,
* understanding of, and assistance with, the diverse child-care needs of refugees.

Ben-Moshe said: “Refugee student needs have to be addressed holistically rather than just their educational needs. If the students are to achieve their educational outcomes institutions have to take into account their socio-economic and cultural circumstance and provide general life education services beyond the usual remit of an education provider.

“Educational institutions need to change the way they think and take on board the broader needs of the refugees, such as housing and child care. They can do this by having a liaison officer that works with the refugees and external bodies such as service providers...

“A program of cross-cultural training should also be implemented for TAFE and Higher Education teachers and other staff such as librarians, to inform them of the needs of refugees and appropriate responses.”

And some rose petals too?

Pacific Island guest worker scheme: 7:30 Report video

14/08/2008

Plans for a controversial Pacific Island guest worker scheme to address crippling labour shortages in Australia's horticultural sector, are about to be unveiled by the Government. The move has already sparked a backlash from some trade unions and the Federal Opposition, who say the jobs should be going to Australia's unemployed.

The video says that labour shortages are stunting growth and expansion. So is it a labour shortage, or a farmer greed problem?

Leighton wants skilled migration visa scheme widened

Aug 14, 2008

Australia's biggest project development group says the Federal Government's temporary skilled migration visa program should be extended to all classes of workers.

Leightons chief executive Wal King says the company has more than 500 employees on 457 visas.

He says the program is very effective in solving skills shortages.

But he says certain categories of workers, such as truck drivers, are not allowed to work in Australia under the scheme, even though they are desperately needed.

"The labour market should be completely opened up and by 457 programs right across the board, or certainly if not right across the board, down to areas that I would call semi-skilled such as truck drivers," he said.

Australia cracks down on people smuggling

14 Aug 2008

Australia's Immigration Minister Chris Evans has called for a need to "reinvigorate" efforts to stop people smuggling and trafficking across the region...

Senator Evans says some of the measures being examined is even greater sharing of information by countries throughout the region and increased use of technology as well as upgrading the expertise of people working at points of entry such as airports.

Ah, so funny. Evan turns his hand to comedy. They let refugees loose without detention, send the signal to people smugglers that we've gone soft, and then tell us we're cracking down. Masters of doublespeak, learned well from John Howard.

Migrant workers - short-term solutions that make problems worse

July 27th, 2008

It seems a perfect solution. Australia needs workers for seasonal and mining jobs; The Pacific Islands and East Timor, with high birth-rates and much of their populations under 25, have up to 65% youth unemployment. Let their young people come here as temporary labour. Neat. Two problems solved. Temporarily.

It is a dangerous stop-gap for the Islanders unless also family planning cuts family sizes down to four or less. These islands have populations growing to the degree that their own resources cannot support them. The average woman in East Timor has eight children = 64 grandchildren = 512 great-grandchildren... The islands of Tonga, population 45,000 in 1950, are now over 100,000 in only 50 years. The Solomon Islands, in only one hundred years, will grow from just over 100,000 in 1950 to a million in 2050.