tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post5348543882775459697..comments2024-02-11T19:28:27.997+11:00Comments on Personal Reflections: Multiculturalism, migration & Australian lifeJim Belshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-71084587835242870122011-03-09T20:18:08.930+11:002011-03-09T20:18:08.930+11:00I would like to visit Australia for a short time t...I would like to visit Australia for a short time to conduct business - a conference, negotiation or an exploratory business visit. What visa do I apply for?australia immigrationhttp://carremigration.com.au/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-14050416707198080112011-02-18T18:17:30.168+11:002011-02-18T18:17:30.168+11:00Hi KVD. Your points on timing are well taken.
As...Hi KVD. Your points on timing are well taken. <br /><br />As you noted, the recent re-emergence of m-c and immigration is arguably a beat up. <br /><br />If we look at the evidence, it's very difficult to generalise. As an example, I appear in the 44% because may father was born in NZ. <br /><br />In terms of my own life experiences, I have a very large number of friends and colleagues who are either migrants or first generation from multiple countries. They have generaly done very well. Their children have generally done well. <br /><br />Put them aside on the grounds that they are a bit older and look at my daughters' cohorts. A considerable number of them were either born overseas or are first generation. The academic honours boards at schools like theirs are quite heavily dominated by the group we are talking about.<br /><br />I guess that the point I am making is the need, and this applies to me too, to avoid generalisations. <br /><br />At times I think that there are different conversations going on that have lots to do with the people talking but do not have a clear nexus with the actual things talked about.<br /><br />I do get cranky with some of the arguments put. More usefully, what interests me is the variety and pattern of experiences. I was searching towards this in one of my postscripts when I suggested that the current debate might be skewed.<br /><br />To further amplify this, take my comment on the attenuation of Australian citizenship. To the ordinary reader, this must have seemed a strange comment. However, among the professional and entreprenurial young, and this includes a lot of migrants and first born, Australian citizenship is really just a piece of paper on a broader journey. <br /><br />Roughly speaking, for every two migrants that arrive, one local leaves on a long term basis. This applies to all Australians, but seems to be especially strong among those of Indian and Chinese descent.<br /><br />We live in a new world in which the professionally mobile can go every where. Australia as a migrant country is actually at the cutting edge of this.Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-61867219247602017192011-02-18T16:33:54.716+11:002011-02-18T16:33:54.716+11:00Hi Jim
One would have to be particularly insensit...Hi Jim<br /><br />One would have to be particularly insensitive to remain oblivious to your depth of personal feeling in this - and all I can say is the following is well intentioned,and an honest attempt to state my own feelings.<br /><br />1) I think this recent re-emergence of m-c and immigration is a beat up. As far as I know, the Sydney Institute does not throw on a public session at the drop of a hat, therefore the Minister's comments were probably prepared in advance, and would have had regard to various European leaders' comments.<br /><br />2)The fact that the Opposition spokesman this week managed to appear quite insensitive, added to that report of his urging of his front bench to run with this last December was probably simple "luck of the Irish" for the ALP; it gave them a means to paint Mr Abbott & Co into a corner. That's politics, but more importantly, it seems to have broken whatever consensus had been in place till this week. <br /><br />3) I agree we have managed the receipt of migrants into our workforce very well. However, the skilled/family reunion basis is being skewed somewhat by the need to accommodate the arrivals via Christmas Island. And even that doesn't cause me great concern.<br /><br />4) What does interest me is the "first" generation - either arriving with parents, or being born here of migrant parents. My hesitant opinion is that it is these young people who are most in need of support, education, encouragement to make something of their lives outside their circle of family and friends.<br /><br />5) It used to be that 2-2.5% unemployment was "full employment". Now it's 5% or thereabouts - admittedly of a much bigger labour force. And the nature of employment has changed greatly in the last 20 years, meaning a higher level of qualification is required.<br /><br />I realise that just about every word of more than one syllable carries "loaded meaning". I hope the only offense caused by the above is that of common sense - I can live with that.<br /><br />With respect<br />kvdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-61914875040292171332011-02-18T06:29:01.877+11:002011-02-18T06:29:01.877+11:00I am sure that you are correct about the general c...I am sure that you are correct about the general changes in the world of work, kvd. However, I'm not sure about the next step in your argument.<br /><br />Leaving aside arguments about the use of migrant workers to do jobs that locals don't want to do,I don't think that its true as a general statement that we are having diffficulties in absorbing current migrant intakes so far as jobs are concerned. <br /><br />Most of our migrant intake falls, I think, in the skilled or family reunion categories. The first group finds it easier to get jobs in a general sense, the second has an existing support network to help them. The relatively small number of refugees falls into a different class.<br /><br />It's an interesting question that I hadn't thought of before. To waht degree has the change in the composition of the migrant intake actually invalidated all these types of arguments?<br /><br />If you look at the on-ground position, it seems to me that most of the migrant intake actually fits in pretty well in the sense that we don't talk about them. The groups that we do talk about tend to involve small numbers compared with the overall intake and to be geographically concentrated. If I'm right, then the discussion is actually misfocused in that we have a specific, not general, problem.<br /><br />One of the difficult issues I find in discussions about fragmentation in the Australian community is that a degree of fragmentation has indeed taken place, but it's a quite separate issue from migration. Julia's two million un or underemployed, the problem of generational unemployment, are arguably signs of broader fragmentation.<br /><br />This interfaces with the migration issue at several levels: issues of unsuccesful migrants; the question of bringing in migrants when there are un or underemployed; and the real sleeper issue, migrants who are actually too succesful and who therefore raise some resentment.<br /><br />None of this is actually very easy. Take the un or underemployed. As I started to argue a little while ago, this breaks up into several groups. Looking at these, it's not clear to me that a reduced migrant intake would have any impact on the number. In fact, it might even increase it.Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-52029957011571090012011-02-17T14:05:16.983+11:002011-02-17T14:05:16.983+11:00Hi Jim
Sweeping generalisations first:
1) Postwa...Hi Jim<br /><br />Sweeping generalisations first:<br /><br />1) Postwar to late 70’s Australia had need of a great pool of low or partly skilled workers.<br />2) 80’s onwards, much less so – in fact the skillbase now required for the Australian workforce has changed so much as to make it difficult for Australia to properly absorb/employ our current level of migrant intake.<br />3) Australia is not unique. The industries of the 20th century Western world relied on large numbers of un/semi-skilled workers; the 21st is seeing that need filled by the East; we have and are exporting the need for a low skilled workforce.<br /><br />I just think it is almost impossible for newly arrived migrants to get the “Weird Mob” experience: the car, the house, the wife and kids, the friendship and security.<br /><br />People are caught up in the aspirations of those around them. Failure to succeed, to fit in is leading to “Australian” community fragmentation.<br /><br />Integration, assimilation, multiculti call it what you want will happen anyway, as soon as the migrant can hold his head up as a producing member of the community.<br /><br />kvdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com