Australia to cut immigration as recession looms

[ChromeFoundry]

Source: Reuters

16 Mar 2009, 0456 hrs IST, REUTERS

CANBERRA: Australia will cut immigration for the first time in a decade, with recession looming and unemployment rising sharply, Immigration
Minister Chris Evans said on Monday. "We're going to cut it from 133,500 to 115,000, so that's about a 14 per cent cut," Evans told state radio.

"We don't want people coming in who are going to compete with Australians for limited jobs."

Australia's jobless rate spiked to 5.2 percent from 4.8 percent last month with the biggest impact felt by full-time workers. The centre-left government expects unemployment to reach 7 percent by mid-2010, although some economists fear it could go as high as 10 percent. Evans, who removed hairdressers and cooks off Australia's critical occupation shortage list at Christmas, said he was now adding foreign bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians from the list that guides skilled migration intake. Further cuts were likely in the May 12 budget, local media said, leaving only health occupations, engineering and information technology skills as needed skills.



Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Australia_to_cut_immigration_as_recession_looms/articleshow/4269642.cms?TOI_latestnews

[Double T]

1. Oh my god. They can actually THINK in Australia. Hope it isn't contagious.

[Posteritatis]

6. It being Australia, I'm sure this unusual moment will pass (nt)

[Double T]

7. Can't expect much from people that are outback and downunder.

[OhioChick]

2. Smart move.

I've read of many countries doing this as of late. A country "should" offer jobs to their own citizens, first.

[emilyg]

8. You bet!

[AnnieBW]

3. Well, they still need IT workers

Hubby and I are still good. ;)

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Protectionism is only wrong when the U.S. does it.

Just ask any member of the DU Pro-Outsourcing Lobby.

[Deja Q]

10. 110% agreement.

[OhioChick]

12. Isn't that the truth! n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

28. Absolutely right.

Some day these foreigners will learn their place - in foreign, where they belong, with the other foreign types. Then our glorious American Nation will rise from its current immigrant-besmirched state to one of pure harmonious, hermetically sealed joy.

[pampango]

31. You had me going there for a while. Where did you get the picture of the DU anti-immigration

club meeting? :)

[pampango]

5. That's progress. Australia keeps out Americans and French. The US keeps out the French

and Australians. The French keep out the Australians and Americans. If we can all just keep the foreigners out, the world will be a better place.

[Synicus Maximus]

9. Unless they are illegals from south of the border

[treestar]

11. They didn't have enough hairdressers and cooks?

Their economy must have been zooming.

But what difference do the borders make to the world wide economy? Does it necessarily really help just to keep workers in their original countries? How is that going to stimulate the economy anywhere? It could slow it down, too.

[depakid]

14. There was a resource boom

which was part of the reason why the Aussie dollar was nearly at parity this summer. Consequently, there weren't enough people to provide services in places "where the resources are."

In some places, skilled cooks made out VERY well- which makes a lot sense if you think about it.

[PfcHammer]

13. Australia has never been keen on immigrants ESPECIALLY

non-whites

[depakid]

15. That's not so at all

and quite behind the times on the "especially whites" type deal, which Gough Whitlam did away with in 1972.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_war_migrant_arrivals,_Australia

[LeftishBrit]

29. Whitlam was a good man..

John Howard, however, had a real 'thing' against immigrants, especially non-white ones.

Not literally true, however, that Australia has 'never liked immigrants'. I would guess that the Aboriginal people probably didn't like immigrants very much - for good reason - but Australia has long been a nation of immigrants (voluntary and involuntary) and their descendants.

[Violet_Crumble]

33. Gough's a really nice guy...

He's the only ex-PM I've ever talked to, and I agree that he's a really good man...

When it comes to claims that Australia has never liked immigrants, millions of immigrants came to Australia, and I remember reading somewhere that even now, 1 out of 4 Australians were born in another country...

[SwissTony]

17. It's true we did have a White Australia policy

but that's long gone. We've had a sizable African migration over the last few years. As to Australia having never been keen on immigrants....em, where did you get that snippet of nonsense? We're a nation of immigrants, mate. In the fifties and sixties, the Australian government paid for people to come here. Adults had to pay just 10 pounds ("10 pound poms" they were called - kids were free) and you even had free accommodation when you arrived, although it was pretty ghastly. I had a wonderful month long free cruise courtesy of the Aussie government. I suggest you click on the link depakid has supplied to see how keen we are on migrants.

[AlphaCentauri]

16. Meanwhile in the States

Rally calls for immigration reform

MISSION -- None of the weekly drives Thomas Carson has taken in the past decade felt longer than the one he took upset by the bad news the government clerk gave him.

Carson met a Mexican woman, Lucia Ramirez Hernandez, he fell in love with a decade ago when he was working at a maquiladora in Reynosa, he said Sunday at an immigration reform rally in Mission. As his relationship with her developed, they decided to get married.

Carson, an eight-year U.S. Navy veteran, traveled with his girlfriend to Ciudad Juarez to apply for a marriage license where a clerk told him that she was permanently barred from entering the United States.

"We were crushed by the news. It was the longest 20 hour drive back to Rio Bravo that I ever had to make," Carson said. "But on that ride back, we got stronger - our love got stronger."

The couple decided to marry anyway in a ceremony on an international bridge, sacrificing in whatever way they could in the years since to continue the relationship. For the past 10 years, Carson has made weekly trips from his home in Houston to Rio Bravo to see his wife. He's paid to maintain households on both sides of the border, and he's covered the costs of child birth for their three children since his insurance would not do so.

But the most difficult challenge has been maintain a long distance relationship with his wife and the three children who stay with her.

Several hundred people listened to Carson's story - one of three testimonials given by families split apart by the nation's immigration policies - during a Sunday night rally at Mission's Iglesia del Pueblo.

The rally - sponsored by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and attended by U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes - is part of Gutierrez's 17-city tour to call for comprehensive immigration reform.

The rallies held in churches across the country are organized to draw attention to families who are adversely affected by the country's immigration system, said Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat. Millions of families across the country are split apart by restrictive immigration policies.

"What is the foundation of a nation?" said Gutierrez, who attended similar rallies in El Paso and Dallas this weekend. "It's families, and it's marriage. We're asking our government not to destroy the foundation of this country."

Gutierrez, Hinojosa, Cuellar and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will meet Wednesday with President Barack Obama to discuss immigration reform.

Hinojosa said the meeting will focus on immigration reform through improving border security, creating a temporary guest worker program and creating a pathway to legal residency for millions already in the United States.

Part of the message the caucus will give to Obama is similar to the ones Carson and others gave Sunday, Cuellar said. That message is how families are affected on a daily basis by the country's immigration policies.

"The stories put a face to the issue of immigration reform," Cuellar said. "It's the way we can show the need for reform."

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/immigration_24312___article.html/carson_families.html

[LynneSin]

18. I'll tell you this much - it's not the illegal immigrants from south of the border hurting us

It's all these VISA being handed out to bring high-tech personal from overseas LEGALLY to work tech jobs right here in the states. With all the Americans, Americans of all hertitagial background, losing jobs left and right we need to focus on finding them jobs first before handing out more VISAs. This isn't 'pick your fruit, clean your bathroom' type jobs but jobs that require skill & education and we have Americans who want to do those jobs.

[olddad56]

23. Sadly, I have to agree.

So many HB-1 visa IT professionals. My primary complaint is that they don't really respect our way of life, or want to become citizens and participate in the politcial process. And frankly, as an IT professional, I see them work hard, but in general, they are not that sharp, especially when required to think outside the box. Just my opinion.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

34. what exactly is the american way of life?

[AlphaCentauri]

25. That's true

[GinaMaria]

19. it makes sense when resources are limited

or strained.

[pampango]

20. Which, of course, they always are.

There's no such thing as unlimited resources.

[GinaMaria]

21. True, but there are times when there's enough to share

this isn't one of those times.

[pampango]

22. "Now" never is one of those times. I don't remember a time when we said "Now is

the time to share. We have enough." Was it 2 years ago, 5 years ago, 10, 20?

[GinaMaria]

24. Clinton years. Alot of people prospered

I know I was able to do more then than now. I don't know about Australia. I can understand a country righting itself before bringing more people on board.

[AlphaCentauri]

26. when people have more they spend more so there is no time to share

but hard working immigrants are sharing their effort to contribute to the economy as they did when the economy was in good shape. Getting rid of them when we feel they are on our way may say something about our greedy.

[GinaMaria]

27. Whoa! I think we are talking about two different things

I was in no way suggesting anyone get rid of people who have already immigrated, just that it makes sense to slow down new immigration right now. This is like being on a sinking ship. Why in the world would you bring more people on board? Australia knows it's limits. Do they have enough doctors or medical supplies, education resources, housing etc at a time when fewer people are working and less money is coming in to pay for these things? It makes sense that countries around the globe are going to assess their current situations, make some forecasts about the future and make immigration plans accordingly. Some may not be able to take a single person, some may take fewer than they did in the past. Australia has a socialized system, does it not? There are people who have paid in, with the expectation that those services will be there for them when they need it.

[pampango]

30. Did we make immigration easier during the Clinton years? Perhaps we did and I don't remember it.

If we condone tightening up on immigration during tough times, we should expand immigration during the good times. Otherwise, we are just using tough economic times as the latest reason to oppose immigration and will still oppose it (for other reasons) when the "good times" return.

[Matilda]

32. This isn't quite what it sounds like.

In fact, the Australian government has cut the projected quota of
skilled migrants from what it had forecast a year ago.

So we will actually still be taking in more migrants than we did last
year; just not as many as we thought we could absorb before everything
crashed.