Making A Difference

One-way Ticket To The Outback

A new government policy aims at preventing fresh migrants from settling in the country's major cities

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One-way Ticket To The Outback
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AUSTRALIA'S growing multicultural society is being endangered by the government's plans to move new migrants to remote areas of the country. In early July,the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Philip Ruddock, announced a range of policy initiatives designed to encourage new migrants to settle away from major population centres such as Sydney and Melbourne. The aim is to populate and improve the economy of the outer regions, but there are signs that the policy will only discourage further immigration.

The policy states that migrants will be encouraged to live in places where there is known shortage of skilled labour. Darwin, Adelaide, Hobart, Townsville, Rockhamp-ton and Cairns are among regional areas with job vacancies that cannot be filled locally. The ministry is also contemplating a bond system, whereby migrants who agree to settle outside major capitals would be offered an advantage over other applicants. The bond, for up to (Aus) $30,000, would be refundable only when the migrant makes a commitment to the area by buying a house or starting a business.

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"The bond idea is a bit like slave labour. The only difference is that in this case willing slaves are brought. But this can be said for places like the Middle East where they make their own rules and people are there on a conditional basis. I suppose when it happens in Australia, we tend to feel more hurt, because we think this place is more civilised," says Sharad Chandra, managing director, ex-president of the Australia-India Society, who has been here since 1968.

The bond system also has logistical diffi-culties. "What happens if the person finds himself in a situation where the jobs he went for, disappears? Is he then, within the two-year period for which he is required to stay in the region, bound to lose his bond because of circumstances totally outside his control? How can such a system work equitably and without discrimination?" asks the chief executive officer of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, Alan Simakoff.

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Simakoff is sceptical about the government's commitment to improve living conditions in remote areas. "The bottom line is that facilities in those areas are sub-optimal. And as a result of the savings cut that the Commonwealth is pursuing in a one-sided fashion, they will become even less attractive, because of the closure of taxation offices, banks and other services. "However, Brendan Ryan, first secretary (Immigration) at the Australian High Commission, New Delhi, asserts that the policy will be anything but discriminatory. "We are not asking migrants to go to places where there are no employment prospects. Darwin and Adelaide, for instance, can hardly be described as small towns." As for the proposed bond system: "It is only fair that migrants who are given preference over other applicants honour their commitment, and this is one way of ensuring that." He points out that the new policy has a provision for matching skills with demands, so that migrants are sent to places where their skills are required. "How can this be considered discriminatory in any way?"

Gurdip Aurora, a doctor who arrived in Australia 23 years ago, believes that the policy will be a failure. "Migrants who apply independently for visas from Asia usually come under the category of highly skilled and professional. They are computer programmers and engineers, or whatever skills the country needs at the moment. Regional Australia just does not have the infrastructure to support these skilled people.

"Raman Marar, a retired teacher from Swinburne University who now heads the Federation of Indian Associations, recently had discussions with Ruddock. He learnt that in future it might become much more expensive for Indians and other migrants to sponsor dependents to join them in the big cities. "Parents joining their children in Australia might be penalised for moving to Sydney or Melbourne—a definite disincentive for potential migrants."

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Young professionals who come under the 'independent' category, as opposed to those who are sponsored, will be hardest hit if the new policy is implemented. Aurora believes there are more opportunities for professional Indians in their own country. "Jobs are on the decline and social security is not available. People who don't have any backup should not come to Australia because this isn't the land of milk and honey."

"We are looking at a potential situation where immigrants are prepared to come here on a conditional basis, perhaps going back to older times when they started immigration and they used to have a more constrictive policy," comments Chandra. He believes that the country has come a long way since the White Australia policy was scrapped 30 years ago, but ghosts from the past may be set to make an appearance.

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UNDER the new policy, migrants will need good English language skills, a situation similar to the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. According to Manning Clark's A Short History of Australia, the old Act states: "Any person who failed to pass a dictation test of 50 words in a European language could be declared a prohibited immigrant.... Any immigrant resident for less than five years could be given the test, and, on failure, be deported".

While the English language component may well be advantageous to many Indians, it is disadvantageous to people from China, Vietnam, the Middle East, former Yugoslavia and some European countries. Nor does the initiative hang well with Australia's push into Asia, believes George Hadded, advisor to the shadow immigration minister. "It would be a back-door way of trying to limit numbers...and it looks like the John Howard of 1988 (when he was anti-immigration) is making an appearance."

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 Official figures for 1995 put the total number of migrant Indians in the country at 79,030, of which about 3,900 arrived between 1994 and 1995. In a country of about 18 million people, this is no small figure. However, the figure is much higher for settlers from China, Hong Kong and Macau, and countries in South-East Asia.

Simakoff points to the fact that Australia is a country of five generations of immigrants, where being anti-immigration would be un-Australian. But that is not strictly true. Even as far back as the early 1990s, moves against certain sorts of immigrants were being made. Asians, Africans, and the islanders of the Pacific were all excluded from receiving old-age pensions as were the Aborigine inhabitants. "The residential qualifications were then such that only 'Dinkum' Aussies, not 'Pommies', or 'Dagos', or 'Huns' could qualify," reads Manning Clark's history. While most Australians would say that the country has come a long way since then, there are still groups like the Australians Against Further Immigration Party, a small, but legitimate political party of about 3,000 members, . that believes the country does not need more migrants. The party's spokesman, Denis McCormack, believes that the new policy is merely a 'band-aid' approach to solving overpopulation in metros.

Sympathisers on both sides of the divide agree that a country suffering from a huge deficit and unemployment problem will need to restrict its immigration. "I don't like - to see qualified, educated Indians coming to Australia hoping for a better future, only to find themselves on the roadside with nowhere to live and no jobs. I can understand the need for limiting the numbers of immigrants for that reason only," says McCormack. The coalition has already ann-- ounced that it will reduce the total number - of immigrants for 1996-97 by about 15,000. Although the plan appears rational on the outside, one can't help wondering whether - it is all part of a much less grand design to take Australia, by leaps and bounds, back into its dark and closed past.

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