Harsh demands on immigrants:
New Federal Government regulations discriminate against poor migrants

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.