TCS bags Rs 1,100 crore Department of Posts's contract

 Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS) today said it has bagged a six-year contract from the Department of Posts (DoP) worth over Rs 1,100 crore.

The end-to-end IT modernisationprogramme to be implemented by TCS will equip India Post with modern technologies and systems to enable it to provide services to customers in an effective manner, TCS said in a statement.

The scope of the project, dubbed India Post 2012, includes developing and supporting mail, finance and accounts, HR, and customer interaction management solutions for all channels including Rural ICT platform.

Under the deal, TCS will also manage data migration, infrastructure, Service Level Agreement (SLA), call centre and centralised24x7 service desk operation for DoP, it said.

The end-to-end security solutions, Enterprise Management System (EMS) and over all integration for entire system is the responsibility of core system integrator (CSI), the statement said.

"India Post has a vision of being a technology-enabled self-reliant market leader and is looking to move from a government service provider to a customer-enabled service provider where the customer will be the focus of multifarious service delivery platforms," DoP Secretary P Gopinath said.

Increased urbanisation, demand for financial services, increased funding by the government for the weaker sections and the rural sector have opened up new opportunities for India Post, which has necessitated development of new processes and supporting technology.

"The core system integrator project is about service delivery transformation through a technology-led, service- oriented approach to offer world class delivery of postal services to Indian citizens," TCS vice president and global head (government industry solutions unit) TanmoyChakrabarty said.

Source  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/software-services/TCS-bags-Rs-1100-crore-Department-of-Postss-contract/articleshow/20328472.cms

Immigration slams 'poor' Manus centre

THE Immigration Department has made a scathing assessment of its own temporary processing facility on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, calling for it to be urgently replaced with a permanent site, as a second asylum-seeker vessel was detected off the mainland.

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry established by Special Minister of State Gary Gray to determine what infrastructure upgrades are necessary on the reopened Pacific Solution site, the current facilities on Manus Island were heavily criticised.

"The temporary centre is cramped and recreation facilities are limited and in a poor state," the departmental submission reads.

"There is no reliable power supply, limited potable water to the facility and the buildings and tents have a very short life expectancy."

It was also slammed for being located in a low-lying swampy area that encourages mosquito breeding.

Immigration officials have raised concerns that despite pedestal fans being provided in tents, temperatures are soaring to 38C, triggering behavioural problems among the detainees.

They fear the conditions in the centre will "increase risk of self-harm (and) mental health problems" and have called on Labor to replace the temporary site with "urgency".

The highly critical description of the conditions on Manus came as a second asylum-seeker boat was detected about 28 nautical miles off the West Australian coastline, a week after 66 Sri Lankans sailed into Geraldton harbour on a donated fishing vessel.

Customs and Border Protection yesterday confirmed that a WA police boat helped to intercept the asylum-seeker vessel, which was carrying 72 passengers.

Several of the passengers were transferred to Broome for medical treatment, while the remainder were sent to Christmas Island for health and security checks.

The boat was detected by a Customs and Border Protection surveillance plane on Sunday, and boarded by authorities from HMAS Ararat about 28.5NM -- just over 50km -- northwest of Broome.

Acting opposition immigration spokesman Michael Keenan attacked Labor for delaying legislation to excise the mainland from the migration zone, saying this was the second boat in less than two weeks to make it close to the mainland.

"This is yet another embarrassment for the government in a week that has already seen an asylum boat make it all the way to Geraldton undetected and another vessel arrive in Flying Fish Cove on Christmas Island undetected," he said.

The majority of the 66 asylum-seekers aboard the Deutsche Bank fishing boat which sailed into Geraldton harbour last Tuesday continue to be interviewed at the Christmas Island detention centre.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/immigration-slams-poor-manus-centre/story-fn9hm1gu-1226621094676

Australian employers, visa holders and applicants warned about migration changes

Immigration officials are keen that everyone from employers, visa holders and those considering moving to Australia should be aware of skilled migration options and the new laws and penalties that have been introduced recently.

Be visa aware, that is the message that is being sent out as outreach officers visit a series of locations to explain the significant changes to the employer sponsored skilled visa programme which were introduced in July of last year. The main changes are centred around SkillSelect, an online service that connects Australian employers with potential skilled migrants and streamlines the pathway to permanent residence for people already working in Australia on temporary skilled 457 visas.

Officials from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) believe it is important to educate businesses about their responsibility for checking to ensure that workers they employ are allowed to work in Australia. It has information on new laws recently passed by Parliament which introduce civil penalties and infringement notices for employers or suppliers of illegal workers.

Officials are vociferous in tracking down offenders and immigration compliance officers have, in the last few says, located 14 illegal workers and visa over stayers in a series of compliance operations in the New South Wales Illawarra and Southern Highlands regions. A total of nine men and five women were discovered to be unlawful. They indicate the range of different countries where immigrants come from with the group comprising of five Malaysians, six from China, and one each from Italy, Thailand and Vietnam. Eight of them were detained and transferred to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, where they will be removed from Australia at the earliest opportunity and six were granted bridging visas with strict conditions.

A number of the operations were conducted in response to community information provided to the department’s telephone dob-in line. While information was also received through other sources investigations into the circumstances of the employment of the illegal workers are still continuing.

    Quote from AustraliaForum.com : “14-02-2013 – Compliance officers from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) today located 11 illegal workers at a residential property in the northern Perth suburb of Girrawheen.”

Meanwhile, in a separate operation at private premises in the Sydney suburb of Canley Vale immigration compliance officers located five unlawful non-citizens. Two couples, from Malaysia and China, were detained and transferred to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre pending their removal from Australia while a Malaysian woman was granted a temporary bridging visa. ‘Employers should be aware it is a criminal offence to knowingly or recklessly allow a person to work illegally or to refer an illegal worker for work,’ a DIAC spokesman said.

It wants employers to be aware that the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) service is available for them to check the relevant identification details of prospective employees, with their consent, to quickly confirm if they are eligible to work in Australia. Employers convicted under Commonwealth legislation of employing illegal workers face fines of up to $20,400 and two years’ imprisonment while companies face fines of up to $102,000 per illegal worker.

According to DIAC figures in 2011/2012 almost 2000 people were caught working illegally in Australia. ‘This activity continued across the country this financial year with a further 1,029 illegal workers found to December 31,’ the spokesman explained.

Source  http://www.australiaforum.com/information/immigration/australian-employers-visa-holders-and-applicants-warned-about-migration-changes.html

Australia's immigration processes "procedurally flawed"

Refugee activists say they are horrified by the case of a Chinese man, who has sought protection in Australia after allegedly escaping torture in his homeland.

The Falun Gong practitioner's case was backed by the United Nations, but the Australian Government has not accepted the findings.

Correspondent: Karen Barlow

Speakers: Mr Chen, Falungong practitioner and asylum-seeker; Veronica Spasaro, refugee advocate, Balmain for Refugees

BARLOW: (sfx Chinese) The scars are fading, but the man who wishes to be known as Mr Chen can't forget.

CHEN: I was beaten while they handcuffed me by the bars.

BARLOW: Mr Chen practices Falun Gong.. the spiritual discipline outlawed in China since 1999. Its strong following, independence from the state and incitement of so-called disturbances were seen as a threat to the communist party.

CHEN: When I was detained by police I was beaten by the police with an electric stakes and fists and I was also burnt by the cigarettes.

BARLOW: In one case, Mr Chen says he was detained for 16 days.. and tortured every day and told to renounce his beliefs and give up the names of those who practiced Falun Gong with him. He says his home was ransacked, his belongings taken and he was beaten heavily..

CHEN: After I was released it took me about one month to recover. My whole body was really beaten up.

BARLOW: Mr Chen fled China in 2004 and came to Australia for protection (CUT: in 2004), leaving his wife and two sons. There's a grandson he has never seen. Supporters say a negligent migration agent mishandled his case. Mr Chen was ordered to a hearing, but the migration agent never told him to attend.

Veronica Spasaro is from Balmain for Refugees

SPASARO: In fact, that meant by the time he had exhausted all procedures in the domestic processes, he'd never actually been interviewed in person about his claim or his evidence

BARLOW: This led to an eight-year legal limbo and fears of deportation.

SPASARO: We'd exhausted every avenue.. we were convinced there was a grave injustice about to be made.

BARLOW: Mr Chen 's case was taken to the United Nations' Committee Against Torture in New York, which ruled last November that deportation would "Breach article 3 of the UN convention against torture.. " and that Australia's immigration processes were "..procedurally flawed."

The Australian Government response was to.."Not necessarily accept the conclusion" of the UN committee.

Veronica Spasaro spearheaded the UN effort on Mr Chen's behalf. .

SPASARO: When we read that response we were really appalled and horrified, actually.

BARLOW: Mr Chen's supporters say he suffers from trauma not only from torture and persecution in China... but from the eight year process of trying to stay in Australia.

It appears he now has to restart the process for protection."

THE Australian Permanent Mission to the UN wrote that the government was considering whether Mr Chen could "make a further application for a protection visa."

Veronica Spasaro says the response is opened ended.

SPASARO: The horrifying part really is, the possibility that he may in fact be given the opportunity to re-apply for protection, and of course if the last opportunity has taken eight years to play out, the next opportunity could also take eight years potentially.

BARLOW: A spokeswoman for the Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor says Mr Chen's claims and the findings of the United Nations Committee Against Torture will be given due consideration." Mr Chen just wants to get on with his life, which he says he won't have if he is returned to China.

CHEN: A lot of Falun Gong practitioners are tortured to death so this may happen to me as well.

BARLOW: He is also very concerned about his family back home.. he says he has been informed on by fellow detainees in the Villawood detention Centre in Sydney.

CHEN: Some deported back to China already.. they told the police I was still practising Falun Gong. The police threatened my family that I should go back to China soon, quickly . And last year in November my wife was detained for about 4 to 5 days.

BARLOW: Mr Chen's been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

CHEN: I have no choice. I am afraid of going back to China.

BARLOW: So it is life in limbo.. for Mr Chen.

Source  http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific/australias-immigration-processes-procedurally-flawed/1116572

State's policy push on population stalls

SOUTH Australia's Labor government abandoned its promise to create a population policy in "co-ordination" with the federal government in the weeks after Julia Gillard deposed Kevin Rudd and torpedoed his "big Australia" push.

The development of a population platform for South Australia was launched in association with a policy being formulated by federal Labor in 2010, with minister Tom Koutsantonis charged with putting a final proposal to cabinet by the middle of 2011.

He told parliament that the national policy would "inform, and be informed by, South Australia's revised policy".

But although Population Minister Tony Burke released a national strategy in May 2011 -- without a target -- the promised South Australian review and policy never materialised.

Mr Koutsantonis yesterday refused to comment on whether his review was ever completed, or if a policy position was ever presented to cabinet for approval.

Premier Jay Weatherill also did not answer those questions, but in a statement said the "government's commitment to create a population policy was made under the former (Labor) premier".

"My focus is on where population growth is directed within South Australia and how we can live sustainably," he said.

"In particular, we are encouraging a substantial increase in population in the CBD and in regional towns."

He said that since taking over the premiership from Mike Rann in 2011, he had identified that "migration is a key driver of economic growth" and he was "actively pursuing South Australia's fair share of the migration intake".

This follows revelations last week in The Australian that the state Labor government was among the biggest users of the 457 visa program that Julia Gillard has vowed to reform because of employer "rorts".

The Premier yesterday said South Australia's state strategic plan had set a population target of two million by 2050, and the state had already met an interim target of 1.64 million people by 2014.

Ms Gillard has been opposed to any population policy being driven by a single, arbitrary number. Mr Rudd, when he was prime minister, said he believed in a "big Australia" but the government's position changed when Ms Gillard took over in June 2010.

The Coalition's population policy includes a target of 29 million by 2050.

Mr Koutsantonis was to have appointed a steering group and a team of population experts to assist his review. The state's last detailed policy on population, Prosperity Through People, was published in 2004, and predicted a population decline to 2030 because of falling fertility rates, the ageing population and SA's low share of international migration.

Opposition economic development spokesman Martin Hamilton-Smith said the state's population only grew by 1 per cent last year and questioned whether SA Labor's policy was rebuffed by Ms Gillard.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/states-policy-push-on-population-stalls/story-e6frgczx-1226614458735

Labor's 457 visa push disgraceful and racist, says Rupert Murdoch

NEWS Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has branded Labor's language on foreign workers as "pretty disgraceful and racist".

Speaking in Darwin today, Mr Murdoch expressed strong support for the role migration could take to meet labour requirements in developing Australia's north.

“I think the way they are talking about (457 visas) is pretty disgraceful and racist,” the media mogul told Sky News.

“But I'm a big one for encouraging immigration. Just look at America, it's just fantastic. You know, you have difficulties (with the) first generation of migrants, if there's too many people from one area. But you know, they meld in a couple of generations. It leads to tremendous creativity in the community.”

Labor has been ramping up a pre-election campaign against overseas workers, suggesting the 457 visa system has been widely rorted, allowing foreigners to take Australian jobs.

Mr Murdoch said he was excited by the prospect of developing northern Australia and believed private enterprise should play the lead role in boosting Top End investment.

He said the role of government was to provide infrastructure and incentives to encourage investment and labour to relocate to the Northern Territory.

“Right now there is no unemployment in Darwin, and how do we get people to work and come up here?

“We've got to get skilled people up from the south here, and if we still need more people, then we've got to have some migration; that's good.”

News Corporation is the parent company of News Limited, which publishes The Australian.

Julia Gillard has argued her crackdown on foreign workers is about “putting the opportunities of Australian working people first, front and centre”.

However, industry groups have criticised the campaign, saying there is no systematic rorting of the scheme and pointing to skills shortages in key occupational areas.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said Ms Gillard's 457 rhetoric was a “naked grab for votes and a naked pledge to the union movement which has taken control of immigration policy”.

The Prime Minister's office is yet to comment.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/labors-457-visa-push-disgraceful-and-racist-says-rupert-murdoch/story-fn9hm1gu-1226610889938

Temporary Migration is a permanent thing

If the Prime Minister really thinks that the only purpose of the 457 visa is to fill temporary skills shortages then she should ask senior officials for a briefing about the evolution of Australia's migration program over the past fifteen years.

That may have been the original intention of the 457 visa. Conceived when Paul Keating was prime minister but introduced after John Howard took office in 1996, it was supposed to give the domestic training system enough breathing space to catch up with the demand for qualified employees. The idea was that skills gaps would be plugged with temporary foreign workers while locals were trained to fill the positions in the longer term.

Things have worked out differently. The 457 visa has expanded into something much more significant - an essential component of a fundamentally changed approach to selecting skilled migrants.

When Senator Chris Evans was immigration minister under Kevin Rudd, he described the change as a shift from a "supply-driven" to a "demand-driven" system. Rather than qualified migrants putting up their hands to come to Australia and then seeking appropriate employment after they arrive, business recruits directly from overseas. Rather than public servants in Canberra attempting to predict which skills the economy will require next year, business hires the foreign workers it needs, as and when it needs them.

Initially, this relatively new class of workers arrives on temporary visas, but in the ideal scenario things work out well on both sides. The temporary worker becomes a valued member of staff, enjoys the job and the lifestyle and decides to build a future in Australia. After two or three years, the employer sponsors a transition to permanent residency.

In many cases, this is indeed what happens. Almost 40 per cent of 457-visa holders have gone on to become permanent residents. Or, to look at the statistics in another way, about half of the skilled migrants granted permanent residency last financial year were already living here on a temporary basis, mostly as migrant workers on 457 visas or as international students who had graduated from Australian universities and colleges. (In fact the two categories overlap, since an increasing number of international students move to 457 visas after graduation.)

The number of permanent migrants sponsored annually by employers has grown from around 10,000 in 2003-04 to more than 45,000 today. It's no accident that about 80 per cent of these migrants are already living and working in Australia; the figure reflects a calculated shift towards demand-driven skilled migration via a two-step process - first temporary and then permanent residence.

There are many arguments in favour of this two-step process, which is also referred to as "try before you buy" or "suck it and see" migration. It provides a much more flexible and immediate response to the changing needs of employers (including state and territory governments, who are big users of 457 visa-holders in their hospitals). Foreign workers are recruited directly into jobs that match their skills and experience, avoiding the situation in which they come to Australia independently, fail to find work in their profession, and end up in a lower skilled job.

Two-step migration also acts as an additional test of the quality of migrants' skills. If the performance of 457 visa-holders fails to match their qualifications and experience then their presence in the workplace - and in Australia - really is likely to be temporary. Finally, the two-step system gives migrants an opportunity to check out life and work in Australia before they confront the monumental decision of whether or not to move permanently to a new country.

Those are the largely positive features of the temporary migration two-step. But there are unresolved problems as well.

Trade unions have raised concerns about the exploitation of workers on temporary visas and the potential for them to undermine established wages and conditions. Abuses undoubtedly do occur, even if they are the exceptions rather than the rule. A quick trawl through media releases from the Fair Work Ombudsman throws up numerous cases of foreign nationals being underpaid and overworked. But the system is better than it was prior to reforms in 2009, which, among other things, introduced a market-based minimum salary. Now, overseas workers must be paid at or above prevailing local wages; previously, the government set a baseline salary that could fall below the wages commanded by workers in specific industries.

Further tweaking could improve the system. It would make sense, for instance, to give fair work inspectors the power to check immigration paper work to ensure that 457 visa holders are being employed in the skilled jobs for which they were recruited.

The potential for exploitation is inherent in the temporary migration system, particularly with the emphasis falling more heavily on employer sponsorship as a necessary step on the pathway from temporary migrant to permanent resident. As industrial relations commissioner Barbara Deegan found in her review of the integrity of the 457 visa system in 2008, an employer's power to give or withhold support for permanent residency can make temporary migrants particularly vulnerable to "substandard living conditions, illegal or unfair deductions from wages, and other similar forms of exploitation."

If their job situation becomes untenable and 457 visa-holders decide to resign, they have only twenty-eight days to find an alternative employer before they lose the right to stay in Australia. Commissioner Deegan suggested extending the grace period to ninety days. This simple way to help temporary migrant workers stand up to exploitation appears not to be on the government's agenda.

The other concern expressed by some trade unions, and more recently by the prime minister, is that use of the 457-visa has resulted in "foreign workers being put at the front of the queue with Australian workers at the back." Beyond a vague statement on the immigration department's website that the "457 program has expanded well above the national employment growth rate" and that "the nature of the program's use by some employers indicates that the criteria is [sic] not being fully met," little evidence has been offered to support this contention. The changes being rolled out in response to the government's newfound concern about the 457 visa involve a series of technical adjustments rather than any fundamental rethink of the scheme.

There is, for example, no move to introduce a systematic process of labour market testing to check whether skills shortages actually exist in particular area. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship argues that the extra cost of recruiting offshore means that employers will employ qualified local workers first. Complications can arise, though, when a contractor recruits staff for a project in a remote area where skills are clearly in short supply and then redeploys them to a metropolitan area where the extent of skills shortages is hotly contested. (This appears to have been part of the sequence of events behind recent picket lines and protests at a construction site in Werribee.)

Employers say that they use 457 visas when no suitable local candidates are available. If this is the case and temporary migrants take positions that would otherwise go unfilled, then it is more likely that they are enabling enterprises to expand, creating additional jobs rather than displacing local workers. And temporary workers spend money on goods and services, which also generates local employment.


THE shift to temporary migration also raises a longer-term issue. The permanent migration program is capped. The temporary migration program is not. While government sets an annual limit on the number of permanent residency visas, business can bring in as many temporary skilled workers as it needs. What happens if the number of 457 visas grows to such an extent that the number of temporary workers seeking residency exceeds the number of permanent places on offer?

In the last financial year, the number of skilled workers granted temporary visas to work in Australia was almost exactly equal to the number granted permanent residency (125,000). If temporary migration overtakes permanent migration over a sustained period then there is a risk of an accumulating level of unmet demand for residency. We could see a growing backlog of 457 visa holders - people living and working in Australia who want to become residents, but for whom there is no room in the annual quota.

In such a situation the federal government could always increase the permanent migration intake - but the politics of immigration being what they are, there is no guarantee that this would happen. As a result, 457 visa holders could wait quite some time for their applications for permanent residency to be processed.

This is exactly what happened to tens of thousands of international students who met the criteria for permanent residency but found themselves stuck in a processing limbo because there were too few places in the migration program and their applications had been assessed as low priority. At the start of this financial year there were 143,000 applicants for permanent residency already in the processing pipeline, equal to more than an entire year's intake.

This raises more fundamental questions. How long is it acceptable for someone to live, work and pay taxes in Australia but be denied government-funded services, including free medical care or schooling for their children? How long is it acceptable for someone to live, work and pay taxes in Australia but have no right to vote or run for office? At what point do we say that someone has contributed enough or developed a sufficient attachment to this country that they should no longer be treated as an outsider? There are no simple answers to these questions. Now that the temporary two-step is a permanent feature of the migration program, however, these are also issues we need to debate. 

Source  http://www.swinburne.edu.au/chancellery/mediacentre/media-centre/news/2013/03/temporary-migration-is-a-permanent-thing

First of its kind Visa Application Centre for Five Countries Conference (5CC) launched in Singapore

Opening Ceremony of VAC Mar 25 from left Paul John, CFO-VFS Global; Antony Phillipson, British High Commissioner; Bernadette Cavanagh, New Zealand High Commissioner; and Philip Green, Australian High Commissioner.

In a collaborative effort to address immigration and border security of common interest, the Governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States of America have formed a Five Country Conference (5CC). The 5CC nations of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States work together to enhance the integrity, Security and efficiency of their immigration and border services to improve client services and reduce costs.

The border control agencies of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have appointed VFS Global, the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for diplomatic missions and governments, to offer a cohesive visa application facility in Singapore.

As part of their on-going efforts to improve processes, rationalise resources and achieve better value for money, the 5CC have agreed an initiative to share visa support services, including the enrolment of biometrics. The first initiative of the 5CC was launched today with the commencement of operations for Australia, New Zealand and UK visas in Singapore.

The cooperation is aimed not only at providing a convenient and seamless visa application process for these countries, but also jointly tackling visa and identity frauds that has plagued the immigration systems from time to time. By working together under the aegis of the 5CC, the border control agencies will collectively aim to counter some of the common challenges around global migration by sharing best practice and coordinating their response to these challenges. With the maximising of joint efforts to facilitate legal immigration flows, the conference is confident of providing protection to those in genuine need, and to guard against those who would otherwise take advantage of or abuse their immigration systems.

Over the past decade, the border control agencies of the five countries, namely – Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) - Australia, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Immigration New Zealand (INZ), UK Border Agency (UKBA) and US Department of State, have conjointly worked on the following areas of co-operation:

• Identity Management, including the use of biometrics and other technology to tackle identity fraud
  
• Information sharing
  
• Intelligence and overseas liaison
  
• Returns and repatriation
• Intergovernmental migration and refugees
  
• Business development
  

Australia, New Zealand, and the UK immigration departments today announced details of the first Five Country Conference (FCC) shared Visa Application Centre (VAC) at Singapore.

The spokesperson’s for Australia and New Zealand said, “Shared visa application facilities would lead to improved services for clients of each country and would also achieve greater efficiencies through shared infrastructure and staffing. These services will include extended operating hours with phones open until 5pm weekdays, and internet kiosks with an online application tracking facility so clients can view the status of their applications. Savings achieved this way are ultimately able to be passed on to our clients. All applications will continue to be assessed and decided by immigration staff at both the Australian and New Zealand high commissions. VAC staff will not be involved in decisions or have any knowledge of application outcomes.”

The British High Commissioner, Antony Phillipson and UK Border Agency Regional Director: Asia Pacific, Simon Peachey, joined their Australian and New Zealand counterparts to officially open a new shared visa application centre. High Commissioner, Antony Phillipson said: “The use of shared visa application facilities will save us costs through shared infrastructure and resources and allow us to maintain the very high levels of service we provide to our customers in Singapore and continue to develop new premium products to meet their needs.”

Upbeat about this new facility, Ajit Alexander, Chief Operating Officer - Australasia, VFS Global said, “It is our privilege to partner the High Commissions of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the UK Border Agency, to provide a convenient and hassle-free visa application process for the residents of Singapore. We are committed to providing highly efficient and convenient services to all visa applicants applying for Australia, New Zealand and UK visas in the city. Applicants in Singapore can now apply at VFS Global’s convenient and comfortable Joint Visa Applications Centre and expect professional services at all times”.

He further added, “VFS Global is honoured to be associated with the Governments of Australia since 2004, New Zealand since 2011 and the UK since 2003, being their trusted partner in 22, 4 and 35 countries respectively. Infact, we have had the privilege to serve the Government of UK in Singapore since 2004! This extension of our association with the Department of Immigration And Citizenship – Australia (DIAC), Immigration New Zealand (INZ) and UK Border Agency (UKBA) reflects their faith in our abilities, and we are sure to reinforce a longstanding partnership with our esteemed clients. We invite applicants wishing to travel to Australia, New Zealand and the UK to visit our new state-of-the-art and better equipped Joint VAC and benefit from the renewed and additional services offered by VFS Global.”

The Joint Visa Application Centre (JVAC) commenced visa application services for Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Travellers aspiring for visas to these countries can now do so at a convenient and common facility of the VFS Global operated 5CC Visa Application Centre (VAC), located at 20, Cecil Street, #11-02 to 05, Equity Plaza, Singapore 049705.

VFS Global will be responsible for accepting visa applications for Australia, New Zealand and UK visas from applicants residing in Singapore. All applications will continue to be assessed and processed by the DIAC, INZ and UKBA offices respectively.

The key features of the 5CC VAC will be:

• Conveniently located state-of-the art Visa Application Centre
  
• Longer operating hours
  
• Dedicated counters for applicants and travel agents
  
• Easy and standard documentation
  
• Quick and safe biometric enrolments (For UK currently)
  
• Professional and responsive staff dedicated to handle visa queries
  
• Dedicated call centre to answer queries and status of application
  
• Online appointment system and tracking of application status
  
• Dedicated websites to provide information on visa categories, fees, application forms, etc.
  
• 100% secure handling of documents and personal information
  
• SMS alert for visa status update on mobile phones
  
• Door step delivery of passports
  

The VAC will remain open from 08:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs from Monday-Friday, keeping in mind the convenience of the applicants. The services of the 5CC VAC would attract a nominal service fee, payable at the time of application.

Source  http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com/article/90178/first-of-its-kind-visa-application-centre-for-five-countries-conference-5cc-launched-in-singapore

Cameron unveils sweeping immigration crackdown

Prime Minister David Cameron will unveil a sweeping immigration crackdown on Monday aimed at discouraging migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving to Britain when EU restrictions on their right to travel and work there expire next year.

Under his plans, access to National Health Service will be curbed, new migrants will have to wait up to five years for social housing, fines for employers who hire illegal workers will be doubled, and landlords who let to illegal immigrants could face fines too.

The lifting of European Union freedom of movement restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians has triggered warnings in the right-leaning press of "hordes" of welfare-hungry migrants descending on Britain at a time when the economy is stagnant and public resources are being squeezed.

Cameron's initiative reflects a change in the political mainstream after years of politicians shying away from the issue. All three main parties now talk tough on immigration after polls showed it had become one of voters' main worries ahead of a 2015 election and a once derided anti-immigration party surged in the polls.

In a speech that may stir controversy in Romania and Bulgaria, Cameron will say he wants to stop Britain's welfare system being "a soft touch" for migrants, saying that access to core public services is something newcomers should earn rather than automatically receive.

"Net migration needs to come down radically from hundreds of thousands a year to just tens of thousands," he will say, outlining measures that will apply to other EU nationals too.

The UK Independence Party or UKIP, has thrived in the polls after campaigning against "open-door" immigration, humiliating Cameron's ruling Conservative party in a vote for a parliamentary seat three weeks ago.

Cameron is expected to say: "While I have always believed in the benefits of immigration I have also always believed that immigration has to be properly controlled.

"As I have long argued, under the last government this simply wasn't the case. Immigration was far too high and badly out of control."

"SOMETHING FOR NOTHING CULTURE"

He will announce new measures to make it more difficult for nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes Romania and Bulgaria, to claim welfare benefits after six months. They will take effect in early 2014.

He will also promise to close a loophole that allows some people who have no right to work in Britain to claim benefits and subject newcomers to a much harder test to see if they are eligible for income-related benefits.

"Ending the something for nothing culture needs to apply to immigration as well as welfare. We're going to give migrants from the EEA a very clear message. Just like British citizens, there is no absolute right to unemployment benefit," he will say.

Under the plans, newcomers would also have to wait for up to five years before they could join a waiting list for social housing, and face "stricter charging" to use the health service or be obliged to have private health insurance.

"We should be clear that what we have is a free National Health Service, not a free International Health Service," Cameron will say.

His initiative has already been criticised by David Walker, the Bishop of Dudley, who told The Observer newspaper that politicians were exaggerating the immigration problem and considering "disproportionate" measures.

Last Friday, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and leader of the Lib Dem party, the junior member of Cameron's coalition, said Britain was considering obliging visitors from "high-risk" countries to hand over a returnable cash bond to deter them from overstaying their visas.

He also abandoned a promise to amnesty illegal immigrants after ten years.

Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, said on Saturday that the unexpected success of his own party had shifted the debate on immigration.

"If UKIP had not taken on this immigration debate, the others would not be talking about it at all," he told his party conference.

Source  http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/16437506/cameron-unveils-sweeping-immigration-crackdown/

Migration experts to help start new life in Australia

STARTING a new life in Australia is the subject of an event in Coventry this weekend.

Top brass from companies based Down Under will be represented at the Hilton Hotel-based event along with a South Australian government boss.

It is being hosted by migration specialists Thames along with recruitment firm Blue Water.

Registered migration agent, Hannibal Khoury, said: "With uncertain times in the UK, Australia remains one of the most desirable places to migration and work for most Brits.

"Our event is geared at offering employment opportunities to skilled workers who are ready to make the move.”

One of those was Michael Barton, 32, from Coventry.

The motor technician chose a working holiday visa before applying for permanent residency.

The route was appealing and after searching online for ground support engineering jobs in Australia, he went on a website and sent a covering letter and a CV.

"In Australia the market is still booming and there remains plenty of opportunity for my nominated occupation as a motor technician.

"Even though my visa said my skills weren't wanted in New South Wales I had a telephone interview for the job, then spoke to Hannibal about guiding me through the whole process.

"I am now a permanent resident able to live and work anywhere in Australia.

"The job is going great. I'm settling in and enjoying the weather, finishing work in the afternoons, going camping and on surfing and fishing trips."

The migration seminars will be held between 11am and 2pm on Saturday (March 16) at the Hilton Hotel in Paradise Way. Tickets must be booked in advance and cost £10 per person or £15 per couple

Email info@thamesmigration.com or visit www.thamesmigration.com to book.

Source  http://www.coventryobserver.co.uk/2013/03/12/news-Migration-experts-to-help-start-new-life-in-Australia-65380.html

Indonesian migration to Australia on the rise

New research reveals the number of Indonesians migrating to Australia has been increasing significantly.

Immigration expert Dr Salut Muhidin says there are about 80,000 Indonesian diaspora living in Australia, with numbers expected to continue to rise as better cultural networks are established between the two countries.

Presenter: Bill Bainbridge

Speaker: Dr Salut Muhidin, from the Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University

Source  http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/connect-asia/indonesian-migration-to-australia-on-the-rise/1099818

Julia Gillard faces internal revolt on 457 visas

JULIA Gillard is facing dissent in the cabinet and caucus over her attack on 457 visa rorts, with critics claiming the crackdown is damaging the government's credentials with business.

Internal fears are being raised, including by some Gillard supporters, that the move has subjected Labor to claims of xenophobia and failed to ease anger in western Sydney over the influx of asylum-seekers.

Some MPs, however, are pushing the Prime Minister to go further in policing 457 visas, while others argue she is merely protecting Australian workers.

But the dissenting MPs believe the 457 program is essential for economic growth - in all areas - and needs to be flexible to meet ebbs and flows in the demand for skilled workers.

"It is part of our main migration program," one Labor MP said.

An MP who did not want to be named described the 457 issue as "sinister" and a "throwback to the White Australia policy".

Another said that, while the changes to the regime announced by Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor were "quite mild", the rhetoric used to deal with it "doesn't sound like Labor".

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said the government's tightening of 457 visa processes was designed to achieve the original intention of the visa category: "that is, to meet temporary skills shortages where genuinely there aren't Australian workers to fill the positions".

After this week pledging the government wanted to "stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue, with Australian workers at the back", Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor have later in the week cited rorts of the system as the government's reason for toughening the 457 visa regime.

Ms Gillard yesterday defended her stance, saying she was interested in protecting Australian jobs and rejecting claims her message was damaging national harmony or the economy.

"I believe we should only be looking for temporary workers from overseas if there are skills shortages that we cannot fill any other way," Ms Gillard said.

"Mr Abbott believes that temporary workers from overseas should be a mainstay of our migration program; I just don't think that's right."

Ms Gillard said Australia continued to accept migrants who made it permanently their home and became Australian citizens.

"It's been good for our economy; it's been good for our society," she said.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, in a speech in Melbourne, said successive generations of migrants from all corners of the world "have made Australia much stronger and richer than we would otherwise have been". "It is worth pondering for a moment where Australia would be today, in terms of both our living standards at home, and our standing in the world, had we simply shut the door after World War II . . . our population stagnating at a little more than 8 million people," he said.

Declaring population policy "fundamental for the future", Mr Rudd said Australia had instead managed to become the 12th largest economy in the world and a member of the G20.

Ms Gillard said the Howard government had not invested enough in skills and training and cited her experience of meeting overseas-trained doctors and nurses in hospitals.

"We need their skills," she said. "When Mr Abbott was minister for health we did not train enough doctors and nurses."

A spokesman for the Opposition Leader said: "The 457 visa program is a demand-driven program. That's why the use of 457s has almost doubled since Julia Gillard became Prime Minister. It would remain a demand-driven program to address skills shortages under a Coalition government."

The number of people training to be doctors, nurses and other health professionals, including psychologists, had increased when Mr Abbott was health minister or had increased since that time because of measures that he announced as health minister.

Labor senator Doug Cameron said the government should look at introducing inspectors, funded by major mining companies to make sure 457 visa conditions, including workplace standards, were being properly adhered to.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson yesterday stood by his comments in June last year when he said the domestic labour force might not be big enough to meet the peak in construction demand on mining projects, prompting the government to introduce fast-tracked processing of 457 visas and enterprise migration agreements.

Mr Ferguson said his comments were "consistent with Labor's policy of always putting Australian workers first".

"Achieving the potential of our resources industry depends on having the workers needed to deliver on the pipeline of new investment being created, which leads to long-term Australian jobs in the operations phase," he said.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/julia-gillard-faces-internal-revolt-on-457-visas/story-fn9hm1gu-1226592806806

Put the national interest ahead of unions' jingoism

WE can hardly say we were not warned. Last month, the Prime Minister told a trade union conference that her party was neither moderate nor progressive: "I'm a leader of the party called the Labor Party deliberately because that is what we come from." The Labor Party was founded in the late 19th century on a platform of resisting an influx of foreign workers. Incredibly, in 2013, that is where it has returned.

For a party that only last week accused its opponents of dog whistling to xenophobic sentiments, the hypocrisy is breathtaking. Labor says its crackdown on 457 temporary visas is based on anecdotal "community feedback"; read self-serving trade union protectionists. If the performance by ACTU secretary Dave Oliver on ABC's Lateline on Tuesday is anything to go by, evidence is very anecdotal indeed. Yet Julia Gillard is now prepared to dance to Mr Oliver's tune, putting at risk Australia's broader economic interests to govern for a selfish few.

It sets her apart from her predecessors on both sides of politics who understood the link between skilled migration and building our economy. Is this the same Prime Minister who launched the Asian Century white paper, proclaiming it would make us "a more prosperous and resilient nation that is fully part of our region and open to the world"? Does she now refute the paper's call for "a flexible, responsive skilled migration services system . . . to meet Australia's changing labour force needs?" Were the paper's authors wrong to call on government "to reduce unnecessary impediments in Australia's domestic regulations to cross-border business activity"? The answer must be yes, judging by the unedifying debate whipped up by Ms Gillard and her Scottish communications director John McTernan who, to pile irony upon hypocrisy, is himself a 457 visa holder.

Far from displacing Australian workers, 457 visa overcome skills shortages and keep the economy flowing. Visa holders must be sponsored by an employer to fill a nominated position for which they cannot find an appropriately skilled Australian worker. The visa holder must have the relevant qualifications and experience, including English language ability, and hold health insurance. In a nation battling acute shortages of nurses, engineers, scientists, skilled construction workers and other professionals, immigration department records show that the 457 scheme is providing workers where they are needed most. In the six months to December 31 last year, most new 457 visas went to workers in the construction and healthcare industries. Significant numbers were also granted to miners, scientists and technicians.

Ms Gillard now says Labor inherited a foreign workers visa program that was "totally out of control" under John Howard, but she has presided over the biggest yearly increase in overseas workers. In the 2011-12 financial year, 125,070 were approved -- a 52.3 per cent increase on the previous year, underlining the demand for skilled labour. Ms Gillard and her union mates should broaden their vision. At any one time, about 1 million Australians are living and working overseas, enriching their skills and experience and contributing much to other nations. Temporary foreign workers do the same for Australia.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/put-the-national-interest-ahead-of-unions-jingoism/story-e6frg71x-1226591926890

Foreigner 457 visa row boils over

THE Coalition has accused Julia Gillard of preferring migrants who arrive "illegally on boats and go on to welfare" to skilled workers who arrive the "right way", get jobs and pay taxes.

In the wake of the Prime Minister's announcement of a crackdown on 457 temporary working visas, opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the move showed Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor didn't understand the importance of skilled migration.

Ms Gillard and government ministers fired back, accusing the opposition of creating fear and demonising asylum-seekers after Mr Morrison suggested boat arrivals who were released into the community should face new "behaviour protocols" and neighbours should be warned that they were living next door. He announced the proposed new protocols after the indecent assault of a student in her dormitory at Macquarie University in Sydney, allegedly by an asylum-seeker.

While the row over immigration, foreign workers and asylum-seekers became increasingly bitter and shrill yesterday, the chefs at Gogo's Madras Curry House in Perth, several of whom are on 457 visas, didn't have time to tune in to the political drama.

"I don't pay a lot of attention to the politicians on the news because I am, like everyone, busy working and looking after my kids," said Indian-born Bhoj Raj Khatri, now a permanent resident.

Gogo's owner Gogo Govardhan has employed seven chefs on 457 visas over the past 10 years or so because the mining boom reduced the pool of labour available for the hospitality industry, particularly in the West Australian capital.

"Nobody was here: people just graduated from school and they were earning $80,000 a year in mining so why would they want to work for $18 an hour in hospitality," Mr Govardhan said.

"This is still the reality. I challenge anyone to advertise for a chef or other hospitality and you will wait months for a response from someone qualified."

His India-trained chefs are often flown to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide to cook for the Australian cricket team during home games against India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke is a fan of Gogo's chef Shekar Thangaraj's pepper chicken chetinaad.

"I do feel welcome in Australia," Mr Tangaraj said yesterday.

He is in Australia on a 457 visa but hopes to make a life here with his wife and two primary school-aged children. Mr Tangaraj said he never felt he was taking someone else's job. "My boss says he needs me," he said.

Mr Govardhan has 15 staff but needs more after losing two chefs to catering companies that service the resource sector.

He said the chefs he hired from India had a very good work ethic.

Mr Morrison yesterday continued to attack the government's crackdown on temporary work visas, which Ms Gillard described as putting "foreign workers last".

At a conference in Melbourne yesterday, he said: "The Prime Minister is saying, through her attacks on 457s, that skilled migrants who come the right way, who have something to bring to Australia, who get jobs and pay taxes are not the migrants she is looking for. Through her government's continued failures on our borders, she prefers those who arrive illegally on boats and go on to welfare. The budget blowout on Labor's border failures on immigration alone since the last election is more than $5 billion."

Mr Morrison's attack came as Coalition frontbenchers appeared to retreat from the immigration spokesman's earlier remarks about asylum-seekers and refused to endorse his idea of "protocols" to be implemented for those living in the community.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott also called on the government to produce evidence the 457 regime was not working properly, warning against hitting employers with further red tape.

Ms Gillard said there was "community concern" about the level of 457 visas and Mr O'Connor said there was evidence of rorting but his department could not act on it.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said last night the union movement was not opposed to skilled migration but "we prefer migration services to be done on a permanent basis". He told ABC's Lateline that, at the same time there had been a surge in 457 visas issued, 30,000 people had registered on the government's national jobs board, seeking to work in the resources sector.

The job of Ms Gillard's own Scottish communications director, John McTernan, who is on a 457 visa, even became an issue after opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey queried whether there was an Australian who could do the job of adviser to the Australian prime minister. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "We do not comment on individual members of staff."

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/foreigner-457-visa-row-boils-over/story-fn9hm1gu-1226591131774

Relax 457 visa language clause, says business

BUSINESS is urging the Gillard government to use the May budget to ease English language requirements for foreign workers on 457 visas, declaring the program is a crucial economic "shock absorber".

In a submission to be released today, the Australian Industry Group also calls for measures to lift the capability of school teachers, including by broadening ways to enter the profession.

The submission, obtained by The Australian, is the first by a major business group for the 2013-14 budget and comes as the business community becomes disillusioned with populist government policy.

As business reels from last weekend's crackdown on 457 visas, the AI Group submission warns that it would be counterproductive to make changes that restrict the program even further.

The group wants the migration planning level for 2013-14 lifted from 190,000 to 200,000 and for it to have a sharper focus on lifting the proportion of the program earmarked for skilled migration.

"Growth in 457 numbers should not be assumed to be a problem but instead an indicator of success," the submission says.

"It is our view that too much tightening of the program carries economic risks."

The comments are a further attack on the government's rhetoric around the 457 crackdown. Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor has pointed to soaring numbers of 457 workers as part of a hard sell on the latest changes.

Mr O'Connor's move has been criticised by business leaders including Nimrod Resources chairman Keith de Lacy, former Western Mining Corporation chief Hugh Morgan, United Group chairman Trevor Rowe and Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott.

However, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union national secretary Dave Noonan said yesterday tightening the 457 scheme was a good first step.

He said there were many skilled local people being knocked back from jobs on resource projects.

"It is a giant con to say people won't fly in and fly out for these jobs or that the skills aren't there," Mr Noonan told the Maritime Union of Australia state conference in Perth yesterday.

"(There's) endemic unemployment in regional communities, including indigenous communities. Large redundancies happening in manufacturing, in towns such as Wollongong, Geelong, Newcastle and along the eastern seaboard and you tell me that we can't generate skilled labour for these projects."

Mr Noonan said the CFMEU would campaign this election year to make temporary labour, the impact of mining on communities and the manufacturing industry frontline issues.

He strongly denied his union's concerns about temporary foreign labour were racist.

AI Group fears the reforms could include a hike in fees for 457 applications but says these are already substantial and come on top of the average costs of $3000 to $6000 that companies face to recruit each 457 worker.

The group argues that the 457 visa program is an economic shock absorber because it has proved responsive to economic need, with numbers falling during the global financial crisis and growing again as the economy recovered.

On English language requirements, the group says the present level is too high for many applicants, especially those without university qualifications.

The government lifted the language requirements in 2009 after a review by industrial relations expert Barbara Deegan.

On schools, the group says employers are increasingly concerned about the literacy and numeracy levels of typical school leavers, as well as their skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"These skills are essential in the modern economy and this need will be heightened as we increasingly engage with both the challenges and opportunities of the Asian century and new technology," the submission says.

The approach of a singular way into the teaching profession is "no longer sustainable" and AI Group says it is concerning that the average ATAR score for Victorian undergraduate teaching courses has fallen to 67.53 from a peak of 75.26 in the past decade.

Allowing multiple entry points for being accepted into teaching would reflect "the modern workforce and the increasingly mobile labour force", the submission argues.

The group also calls for the implementation of the Gonski review measures.

The submission comes as tensions between business and government mount.

Business is frustrated that while Julia Gillard promised when she announced the election date that the process of governing would continue, instead there has been campaigning on populist issues.

On the government's move this month to cut the R&D tax incentive for the biggest companies, the submission blasts this as "discriminatory" and calls for it to be abandoned.

Industry is demanding the move be reversed, saying otherwise business will withdraw R&D spending .

On the fiscal outlook, the AI Group says that as the economy softens over the next few months and the global economic outlook is uncertain, the budget should be used to provide surplus through extra public sector investment or spending, as well as tax cuts to encourage private-sector investment or spending.

"With the benefit of hindsight, it now appears very likely that the substantial fiscal consolidation project in the 2012-13 budget is contributing to the slower than anticipated growth of the domestic economy," the submission says.

"These considerations suggest that a larger deficit should be tolerated for the 2013-14 year."

The group also wants the budget used to encourage: the recruitment services of mature-age employees; an economy-wide Productivity Commission inquiry into regulations that hinder the use of digital technologies; cuts to the company tax rate to 25 per cent; and the retention of promised financial assistance for industries hit by the carbon tax despite the government's broader push for savings measures.

Source   http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/relax-457-visa-language-clause-says-business/story-fn9hm1gu-1226587260555

Business canes reworking of 457 visa system

The Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce and Industry says a Federal Government decision to make the 457 visa system more restrictive is bad news.

The Government says the system for importing workers was being rorted by some employers who weren't using available Australian workers.

NT Chamber manager Greg Bicknell has questioned what happened to what was supposed to be Australia's first regional migration agreement, which was to cover the Northern Territory.

The Federal Government announced a year ago it would negotiate the agreement so that Darwin businesses could hire overseas workers if there were no Australians to fill the jobs.

But there has been no agreement and the Government has now announced a raft of changes to the 457 visa system, making it more restrictive.

Mr Bicknell says Darwin's unemployment rate is less than 2 per cent, and businesses will find it even more difficult to get workers.

"The majority of employers in the Northern Territory are small to micro businesses," he said.

"Generally, skilled migration is a last option.

"They will have tried to recruit local people first and foremost because that's easiest.

"It is a costly process to bring someone in from overseas.

"It's not the preferred option, but often it's the only option."

Mr Bicknell says the changes will make the system more difficult and expensive.

"Anything that increases the complexity of this program is something business doesn't want to see," he said.

Skilled migrants a success story

SKILLED migrants and foreign workers have made an important contribution to Australia's economic success in recent decades. They were welcomed by both sides of politics for the boost to productivity they delivered. Such workers continue a strong tradition in a nation that was built by waves of hard-working and skilled newcomers from all corners of the world. Against that background, the Gillard government's crackdown on temporary 457 visas, under pressure from trade union leaders, exposes the union movement's narrow, backward outlook and its disproportionate power over federal Labor.

As Michael Easson, chairman of the Ministerial Council on Skilled Migration and a former ACTU deputy president, wrote a fortnight ago, the much-maligned 457 visa program responds to the economic cycle. Its flexibility is what makes it efficient, placing workers directly in jobs they need, where local staff are not available.

While union leaders complain that the temporary 457 visa scheme has been exploited as an easy route to permanent residency, the 83,000 workers in Australia under the scheme comprise just 0.7 per cent of the workforce. Their presence has been vital to fill skill shortages, especially in the mining sector. Applications for the visas fell by 4.8 per cent in the six months to December 31. At a time when miners are racing to capitalise on demand for resources, "expunging" the enterprise migration agreements that help major resource projects fill vacancies, as union leaders want, would handicap our most productive industry. It would damage confidence, investment, growth, job creation and incomes as Nimrod resources chairman and former Queensland Labor treasurer Keith De Lacy warned yesterday. Such economic sabotage would be intolerable, and if the Gillard government is to retain a shred of credibility with business it must put the unions in their place.

Despite the unedifying, populist race to the bottom over population during the 2010 election campaign, the reality facing Australians is that as baby-boomers retire, the nation will face lower living standards without a larger, more productive population. We must think long and hard before turning away skilled, net-contributors to the Australian project, whatever the protectionists might say.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/skilled-migrants-a-success-story/story-e6frg71x-1226585419364

Australian government invests in game industry to halt job migration

Australia's government-funded Screen Australia program plans on investing $20 million into the local video game industry. Gamasutra reports the organization will spend $4-5 million on games production and $2-3 million on supporting business sustainability over the next year.

The organization cites the American-owned Firemonkeys, studio-killing LA Noire and Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride) as successful signs of Australian-developed games – hey, one legit shout-out to Halfbrick out of three ain't bad.

Australia has had to spend the past several years reinventing its place in the video game industry. Unfavorable exchange rates for foreign investors caused major publishers to pull console game development out of the country, causing severe job losses over a three-year period. The region has found success focusing on the mobile market. 

Source  http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/18/australian-government-invests-in-game-industry-to-halt-job-migra/

Domestic violence victims seeking asylum in Washington

Clara Flores-Aguilar says the beatings began days after she gave birth to her first son.

The pain wouldn’t stop for more than two decades. Eyes swollen with tears, Flores-Aguilar said she endured death threats, injuries to her children, a hot oil scalding, a stab wound on her leg and continuous public humiliation at the hand of her alcoholic and drug-abusing husband.

She recites a litany of abuse that only stops when she flees from Honduras, first in the middle of the last decade and again two months ago. The 50-year-old is thousands of miles from Honduras, but whether she can start anew in the United States was not known on a recent January afternoon.

Flores-Aguilar was being held at the Tacoma Detention Center as she waited a decision by an immigration judge to allow her asylum case to proceed. For that to happen, the judge must believe her story of abuse.

“I just wanted to escape again,” Flores-Aguilar told The Associated Press in Spanish, adding that in August she left a successful small deli behind after her husband said he’d kill her and himself at the end of the year. “I trust in God that he takes all of this into consideration. I don’t want to go back.”

It’s an uphill legal battle. Seeking asylum because of past domestic violence abuse has not been a successful road to take as immigration judges have traditionally declined such requests, attorneys said. But recent court cases have given these women hope.

“We’ve been having a little more luck with these cases,” said Ashley Huebner, an attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “Historically, there’s been significant fear and hesitation by a lot of adjudicators.”

Flores-Aguilar is not alone in Tacoma.

Around 100 women from Central America applying for asylum have been processed through the Tacoma Detention Center over the past two years, said Betsy Tao, an attorney for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project who works at the detention center.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials couldn’t immediately say why there’s a small surge of these women in Tacoma, though it may have to do with the way the agency transfers immigrants in custody around the nation. Two years ago, after an influx of Somali asylum seekers came to the U.S. at different ports of entry, large groups of them were transferred to Tacoma.
Requests increase

Asylum requests from Central American women at the nation’s ports increased from 95 in fiscal year 2010 to nearly 200 this past year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. U.S. Citizenship and Migration Services processes far more asylum requests, but their available data does not include requests from Central American women based on domestic violence.

Considering all the types of migration to the United States, these women represent a tiny blip and the numbers are too small to make broad conclusions. But in a place like the Tacoma Detention Center, the women stand out among the hundreds being detained.

Tao said it’s not her organization’s call to judge whether the stories the women tell are true.

Under law, filing a frivolous asylum claim can lead to a lifetime bar on entering the United States.
Recent key case

One of the last key court cases for domestic violence victims seeking asylum came from a Guatemalan woman named Lesly Yajayra Perdomo in 2010.

She argued in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that violence against women was so rampant in Guatemala she would face the risk of murder if she was sent back. At least 4,400 women were killed in Guatemala between 2000 and 2010 and fewer than 3 percent of the cases are solved, according to the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law.

At issue in the Perdomo case was defining a “particular social group” that is persecuted and qualifies for political asylum in the United States. Women who fear genital mutilation or victims of domestic abuse have been deemed “social groups” and granted asylum.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered immigration judges to seriously consider granting asylum to Guatemalan women who fear they will be killed.

Recently, advocates launched a campaign to include changes to asylum law in the immigration reform President Barack Obama and Congress are formulating. They want to ensure gender-based asylum claims constitute part of a “particular social group.”

That’s far away for Flores-Aguilar.

For her, life had one more tragic event. She says her father died of an infection after his small intestines were perforated during a routine hernia surgery. He had decided to undergo surgery because he had taken Flores-Aguilar’s oldest daughter into his house. She didn’t find out until she had been taken into custody.

“If I had never come here, he wouldn’t have gotten the surgery,” she said, crying. “He wouldn’t be dead. Why?”

On Feb. 1, an immigration judge deemed Flores-Aguilar’s story credible and she was released from the detention center.

She now awaits the final asylum decision.

Source  http://www.columbian.com/news/2013/feb/17/domestic-violence-victims-seeking-asylum-in-washin/

Employ foreign workers without exploitation

Despite recent Australian politics being dominated by spin and mud-slinging, big things are at stake in Election 2013.

The Liberal Party discussion paper advocating the development of northern Australia merits more scrutiny than it received last week. This is a big idea, some of which is promising, but a lot of which is highly concerning.

In a nutshell, the idea hinges on the development of northern Australia to give business, workers and their families the incentive to move to these sparsely populated areas.

To spur on business investment, northern Australia would be lightly regulated with low tax rates, fast-track approvals of permits for construction and expanded use of low-skilled foreign workers. Supporting this proposal is Gina Rinehart's powerful lobby group Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision (ANDEV).
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The central premise of the scheme is that northern Australia would be freed from the shackles of government regulation. Herein lies the challenge for the Liberal Party: in creating this deregulatory pro-investment nirvana, how do you avoid the rampant bullying, unsafe workplaces, cramped living spaces and, on a few occasions, deaths, that occurred the last time Australia allowed in semi and low-skilled foreign workers on a lightly controlled 457 visa?

During the Howard government years, the 457 visa scheme was expanded and deregulated, allowing an influx of low and semi-skilled migrant workers. Stories abounded of serious instances of exploitation: an Indian chef unable to speak English worked 14 hours a day for 40 consecutive days without being paid. In another case, four Chinese workers who spoke little English were found to have been underpaid $93,667. In another case two workers were forced to continue working after breaking bones in their arms doing work they were unqualified to do.

In many other cases low and semi-skilled workers on 457 visas had ''rent money'' docked from their wages to pay for overcrowded and underserviced company housing.

These abuses and many more were uncovered by the Deegan Review, which led to the Labor government passing a series of legislative reforms to improve the integrity of Australia's foreign worker program.

The problem for the Liberal Party and their ANDEV pals is how to design a deregulatory oasis in northern Australia without it descending into a guest-worker ghetto. Our recent history has shown us that low and semi-skilled migrant workers aren't in a position to bargain for wages and entitlements. Their vulnerability is compounded by their need for an employer to sponsor their continued residence in Australia.

So a visa scheme that attracts low and semi-skilled workers cannot be lightly regulated. History has shown there need to be inbuilt safeguards to protect these workers from exploitative treatment. Such a scheme cannot be designed purely with business in mind, because reducing red tape will benefit business but enable exploitative workplaces to proliferate.

Faced with this quandary, some would argue against low-skilled guest-worker schemes altogether. American political philosopher Michael Walzer regards anything short of permanent migration services as morally unacceptable and as the ethical equivalent of a ''family with live-in servants''.

Nonetheless, low-skilled guest-worker schemes can work. For example, the Pacific Seasonal Worker Scheme has been effectively designed and piloted to prevent a broad spectrum of undesirable labour practices. But regulation is essential to ensure workers receive adequate rates of pay and appropriate living and working conditions.

Low and semi-skilled migrant workers need to be made aware of their workplace rights and whom they should contact in the event of safety problems at work.

Resources must also be allocated to government agencies monitoring workplaces and enforcing labour standards. Measures such as these can enable business to manage skill shortages without workers becoming victims.

So yes, let's consider developing northern Australia. Indeed, kudos to the Liberal Party and ANDEV for proposing that we do. But if we consider this idea, let's do it right and with informed debate: especially on the deregulatory thesis underpinning it.

Source  http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/employ-foreign-workers-without-exploitation-20130212-2eb03.html

Review threatens accountancy's status

INTERNATIONAL education lobbyists are claiming special case status for accounting courses, citing a completion rate of about 130 per cent as an example of the unique role played by the degrees.

And they say a 74 per cent plunge in Indian students shows that accountancy studies are no longer being used as a back-door migration route.

The figures have emerged as the workforce advisory body considers whether accountancy should remain on a key migration services priority list.

Management, tax and general accountants are among the 192 professions on the skilled occupation list, putting them near the front of the queue of would-be migrants seeking Australian residency under the independent and family-sponsored streams of the skilled migration program.

However, the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, which reviews the SOL each year, has flagged accountancy for possible removal, saying it may not meet the conditions of inclusion.

They include how long it takes to train, how closely the training fits with the occupation and the economic risk of running out of people with those skills.

Educationalists fear a new crash in international enrolments if accountancy is knocked off the list, saying up to half of overseas university students consider accountancy.

According to figures presented at a Canberra forum last month, the number of international students who graduate as accountants significantly exceeds the number of commencing enrolments.

For example about 14,000 overseas students began the typical three-year course in 2008, but more than 18,000 graduated in 2011. Similar patterns occurred in other years.

Domestic graduates also outnumber commencers, although not to the same degree.

International Education Association of Australia executive director Phil Honeywood said the figures demonstrated that any change to accountancy's status could affect enrolments in other areas.

"There's a real danger that if you take accounting off the list, there will be a decline in international business enrolments," he said. Mr Honeywood said Australia was training "culturally diverse accountants for the region, not just Australia".

The forum heard Australian universities had hosted fewer than 1900 accountancy students from India last year, down from more than 7000 five years ago.

Source  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/review-threatens-accountancys-status/story-e6frgcjx-1226571113796

Fewer foreigners are applying for skilled work visas

 THE number of foreign workers applying for skilled work visas is falling - but their use is still provoking fiery exchanges with one union already launching a campaign against them.

In the latest Department of Immigration statistics, the number of 457 visas rose 10.4% in the 12 months to November 2012 compared to the year before.

But from June, the rate of applications started to fall.

At the same time, the number of visas issued rose 10%, creating a total of 103,430 workers in Australia on 457 visas.

Despite the hint of a decline in visas, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has launched its "Let's Spread It Around" campaign aimed at "making the mining boom deliver jobs for Australian workers" as the country prepares for the Federal election.

One of its key platforms has a focus on those struggling to find employment as workers are brought in from abroad.

"While youth unemployment remains a major issue in communities across the country, big mining companies are continuing to bring in temporary foreign workers to build and operate mines rather than training local staff which defies common sense, " National secretary Michael O'Connor said.

The average 457 visa worker earned $89,800, according to the Department of Immigration.

A national body representing the mining industry swiftly returned fire at the union, saying local workers filled 92% of mining jobs in the past year.

The Australian Metals and Mines Association said the use of skilled migration was "very small but very important" to industry.

In Queensland, the number of visas granted overall went up more than 15% for a total of 5290 with jobs in mining, health care and construction demanding the most workers.

Of those, 20.8% - or 1100 - came from the UK, following closely by 16% - or 840 - who came from India.

When compared to the year before, demand for mine workers on visas fell 15% while both health care and construction industries needed some help from international hands.

In New South Wales, mining made up a paltry amount of the 10,760 given visas across the state.

Demand was instead dominated by need for workers in IT, health care and scientific fields.

For country of origin, the positions reversed with 24.3% or 2620 workers coming from India and 21.4% or 2310 coming from the UK.

QUICK FACTS

Total number of 457 visas (temporary skilled workers) in

Australia:

    Nov 2011: 83,140
    Nov 2012: 103,430 (24.4%)

QLD

    Nov 2011: 4590 visas granted.
    Nov 2012: 5290 (+15.3%)

Top five countries:

    UK,
    India,
    Philippines,
    Ireland,
    US.

NSW

    Nov 2011: 9790 visas granted
    Nov 2012: 10,760 (10%)

Top five countries:

    India,
    UK,
    Ireland,
    US,
    China.

Source  http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/fewer-foreigners-are-applying-skilled-work-visas/1743218/

Australia sees fall in applications for skilled migration 457 visas

Employer demand for the temporary skilled migration subclass 457 visas, one of the most popular routes for employing overseas workers, has decreased in the last six months, new data reveals. From July to November 2012, the number of applications fell by 4%, while the number of visas approved also fell by 12% over the same period.

The latest monthly report from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s (DIAC) indicated that the decline has been developing since June last year and has been falling for the last three months in a row. ‘Reinforcing this trend has been a drop in actual 457 visa grants since August. This movement demonstrates the 457 visa program’s responsiveness to the changing needs of the Australian economy,’ said a DIAC spokesman.

There has been a lot of debate in Australia about the jobs market and growing calls for Australians to be offered jobs first before they go to foreign workers. ‘While the subclass 457 visa stock figure is still high, new take up of the programme is declining, particularly in the construction and mining industries that have driven much of the recent growth,’ the spokesman explained.

‘Use of the programme has fallen across a number of industries that have traditionally been among some of the other big users of the programme including health care and social assistance, information media and telecommunications,’ he added.

In the 2012/2013 programme year to November, 3,900 applications were lodged in construction, a fall of 3% from the same period last year. A similar trend is evident in mining where 2,400 applications were lodged, an 11% per cent fall. The subclass 457 visa programme is uncapped, demand driven and designed to respond to the needs of the Australian economy, the spokesman added.

The figures also show that Western Australia is now the second largest user of the programme in 2012/2013 after New South Wales. ‘This reflects Western Australia’s strong labour market and shows the 457 programme’s responsiveness to the needs of the economy,’ he said.

While trade occupations have grown, the programme remains concentrated on highly skilled managers and professionals. For example, of those 457 visa holders who were in Australia on 30 November 2012, some 64% were working in occupations that typically require a bachelor degree or higher qualification.

    Quote from AustraliaForum.com : “Been offered a job and the company are in the process of sorting out the visa etc. I have a question or two that I would like some help/advice on if possible. 1. If I enter before my visa is approved (using my current holiday visa) would I need to exit and then re enter in order to activate the visa or could the visa be activated whilst in the Country ? 2. Is there a difference in the time it can take for a visa applied for in Australia or applied in the UK ?”"

The DIAC said that remuneration levels also demonstrate how successful the programme is in targeting highly skilled workers. Average total remuneration of those 457 visa holders granted visas this programme year to the end of November was $89,800. Managers and professionals, who together accounted for 66% of the total number of visas approved this programme year, had combined average total remuneration of $109,000. But the DIAC denied that the programme undermines employment and training opportunities for Australia and said that changes introduced in 2009 addressed these concerns.

‘As a result of these changes, all employers seeking to sponsor foreign workers on subclass 457 visas are now required to make a measurable contribution to training Australians by meeting one of two training benchmarks. They must also attest, in writing, to having a strong commitment to employing local labour and non-discriminatory employment practices,’ the spokesman pointed out. ‘Potentially vulnerable applicants working in trade occupations are required to meet English language requirements, and may be required to have their skills formally assessed. DIAC has also made it easier for visa holders to change sponsors, reducing the risk of their being bonded to an employer,’ he said.

‘Sponsors are also obliged to provide their overseas workers with terms and conditions of employment no less favourable than those provided to Australians, including paying them the market salary rate. This obligation is backed up by the Worker Protection Act, which enables DIAC to effectively monitor sponsors, and to take appropriate action against those found to be exploiting foreign workers,’ he added.

Source  http://www.australiaforum.com/information/general/australia-sees-fall-in-applications-for-skilled-migration-457-visas.html