Australia Toughens Immigrant Rules

[george]

Australia toughens immigrant rules

SYSNEY: -- Immigrants wanting Australian citizenship will have to wait four years instead of three under tough new rules announced Friday.

Proficiency in English, a knowledge of Australian history and a grounding in civic duties would also be required before those holding permanent residency visas could graduate to become full citizens, Prime Minister John Howard said.

"I think most people will welcome it," the prime minister said. "You'll certainly need to know a good deal more about Australia and about Australian customs and the Australian way of life."

The proposed changes are intended to at least isolate, if not weed out, militant Muslims and others ideologically opposed to democracy, the rule of law, women's emancipation and other liberal values.

The longer probationary period means that those who engage in criminal activity during their first four years in the country could not only be denied citizenship but also deported.

"It won't become more difficult if you're fair dinkum (genuine) - and most people who come to this country are fair dinkum about becoming part of the community," Howard said. "Cultural diversity should never come at the expense of a clear, strong, compelling national identity."

Since last year's London bombings by mostly home-grown Muslim extremists, the Howard government has gone on the offensive against the tiny section in the 300,000-strong Muslim population who disavow liberal values and are reluctant to join mainstream society.

Howard set up a Muslim advisory body after the London bombings to help formulate policy that would curb extremism and promote integration. The prime minister singled out immigrants from Muslim countries as the first batch of settlers to have thrown up an integration problem.

"You can't find any equivalent in Italian, or Greek, or Lebanese (Christian), or Chinese, or Baltic immigration to Australia," Prime Minister John Howard said last month when calling on all Muslims to integrate. "There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad."

The proposed changes to citizenship rules are likely to have the backing of the opposition Labor Party.

Civil rights bodies objected to the proposed changes, saying they might disadvantage those who had difficulty mastering English.

"We don't support a tough language test because we feel it will discriminate against people from communities where they don't speak English," Voula Messimeri, head of the Ethnic Communities Council, said.

The Greens, one of the minor parties in federal parliament, attacked the changes as "discriminatory" and "xenophobic" and a return to the White Australia policy that prevailed before 1970 when Australia's colour-blind immigration policy was brought in.

"It simply means it's going to become harder to come to Australia if you don't have an Anglo background - and that's not what this country ought to be," Greens leader Bob Brown said.

--DPA 2006-09-15

[samran]

Australia toughens immigrant rules

"It simply means it's going to become harder to come to Australia if you don't have an Anglo background - and that's not what this country ought to be," Greens leader Bob Brown said.

--DPA 2006-09-15

hmm, except if you are singaporean, malaysian, indian, Hong Kong, Southern African or simply someone who has studied in OZ at a university and is given PR - which includes all of the above plus more.

Means we can keep out more french though.....always a good thing.

[kiakaha]

NZL is tougher now also. Once you have PR, this can take up to 1 year, you then have to spend around 5 years physically in NZL before you can apply for citizenship.Then the citizenship application will take 8-12 months. So all up, from being an alien to being naturalised can take, for most people, around 7 years !

[steveromagnino]

NZL is tougher now also. Once you have PR, this can take up to 1 year, you then have to spend around 5 years physically in NZL before you can apply for citizenship.Then the citizenship application will take 8-12 months. So all up, from being an alien to being naturalised can take, for most people, around 7 years !

yep.

A fair few of my Thai uni mates got the PR, then couldn't be bothered spending all that time down there, and evenually have let it lapse and given up.

I've not met too many immigrants (including my mother's entire family) that whinged about the process; it isn't like it is a right to be part of some other country. Met plenty of locals who don't like the immigration at all; especially the Asian ones; fair enough too in some ways; govt has taken the money but not done much to make sure they fit in; something that the Thai govt should enforce here (genuinely test Thai language ability, etc etc).

Mind you, my grand parents still haven't bothered to learn engrish after only 50+ years; I guess back in those days that wasn't part of the test...just as well for them

In the words of Terry57; cheers cobber

[gburns57au]

I believe that this is in the proposal stage at the moment.