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Jerry-Gomez

Jerry-Gomez

Jerry Gomez is the Editor at Migration Alliance as well as an experienced RMA (MARN 0854080) and Lawyer practicing in Immigration Law, Business Law and Property Law.

Posted by on in General

Australia has temporarily closed its borders to people from Ebola-affected west African nations as it steps up the nation's defences against the virus, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told parliament on Monday Australia had suspended its immigration program, including its humanitarian intake, from Ebola-affected countries including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Mr Morrison added Australia was cancelling or refusing non-permanent or temporary visas for people from Ebola-affected nations who had not departed for Australia.

He said the government was ensuring that all people from Ebola-affected nations who had entered Australia through the humanitarian program before the suspension had undergone three separate health checks before their departure, and were being subject to on-arrival screening and post-arrival monitoring.

Other permanent visa holders from these nations were being required to submit to a 21-day quarantine period before their departure for Australia, Mr Morrison said.

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Breaking the dominance of Northern and Western European countries for top spots in the world's most livable countries were Australia, United States, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore. The ranking was based on the most recent release of the Human Development Index by the United Nations Development Programme, according to a report on internet journal 24/7 Wall St.

According to the report, data from the Human Development Index is based on three dimensions of human progress — having a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, and having a good standard of living. According to the index, Norway is the most livable country in the world, while Niger is the least livable.

One factor that influences a country’s development is its income. The U.N. used gross national income in its calculation of the Human Development Index to reflect the standard of living in a country. In the most developed countries, gross income per capita is generally quite high. All of the world’s 10 most livable countries had among the top 30 gross national incomes per person. The top-rated country, Norway, had the world’s sixth highest gross national income per capita of $63,909.

If income levels were higher in Australia, it would likely be ranked no. 1. Australia lost out on the top spot with a Gross National Income per capita of $41,524 which is the 20th highest in the world but roughly on par with other highly developed countries. However, Australia had one of the longest life expectancies in 2013, at 82.5 years. Residents 25 and older had also spent more time in school than adults in any other country, at 12.9 years on average as of 2012.

Additionally, at 5.2% last year, the country’s unemployment rate was far lower than similarly developed countries in Europe as well as the United States. Australia’s economy has benefitted tremendously from a mining boom in recent years, although the economy is currently rebalancing as iron ore prices have dropped and growth in China — a major trade partner — has slowed.

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The working holiday visa has been a popular stepping stone to the 457 visa and subsequently a permanent residence visa. Many skilled working holiday visa holders with carefully prepared and planned migration pathways have successfully made the transition. Australia has been promising to expand the program and has already added Greece, Poland, Spain and Portugal to the list this year. Now, Israel joins the list.

On 22 October 2014, Australia and Israel announced that a new Work and Holiday Memorandum of Understanding was signed, establishing a reciprocal Work and Holiday visa (subclass 462) arrangement between the two countries.

This arrangement, when brought into effect, will allow up to 500 young adults from Israel and up to 500 young adults from Australia to enjoy a holiday in each other’s country, during which they may undertake short term work and study, according to DIBPs media release.

In the coming months, Australia and Israel will work closely together to implement the necessary legal and administrative processes to bring this visa into effect. The work and holiday arrangement will not commence until a start date has been agreed by both countries.

Once a commencement date has been announced, eligible young adults from Israel and Australia will be able to apply for this visa.

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The department of immigration has released its latest annual report in which it claims that it has achieved one of its key objectives (beside border protection) of granting the ‘best and brightest’ in the crop of migration applicants a quicker pathway to permanent residency so they can get on with their life and contribute to the Australian economy at the earliest.

In its latest annual report the department boasts that skilled migration application are being finalised between 6 and 12 months from the time of lodgement. The employer nominated scheme is the quickest pathway where the DIBP claims to have achieved almost 90% of its service standard of finalising 75% of the applications within 6 months.

In sharp contrast to this is the processing times for the family stream visas. The case in point is the Partner Temporary visa which has a similar service standard of 75% finalisations in 6 months. However, DIBP has achieved this only in about 1 in 5 cases with most being finalised in 12 months. RMAs have complained that DIBP has intentionally done this in order to spread out grants over the year and that some delays are due to applicants lodging applications without professional guidance due to the high deparmental application charges.

The sc457 Visa grants has seen a dramatic drop across the states. In 2013–14 the 457 primary visa grants for Western Australia (down 41.3 per cent to 8605) and Queensland (down 31 per cent to 7547) both fell. DIBP explained that this is in line with the slowing-down of the mining industry. The 457 primary visa grants for New South Wales (down 18.5 per cent to 19,693) and Victoria (down 14.8 per cent to 12,261) also fell.

The top three source countries for the 457 visa in 2013–14 were India with 23.3 per cent grants, followed by the UK (18.3 per cent) and the Republic of Ireland (7.2 per cent). These were the same top three source countries in 2012–13.

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The media and unions have taken a broad swipe at the sc457 programme today referring to a leaked audit of the program by the Fair Work Ombudsman which suggests that “up to 3,600 [foreign workers] are working as teachers, mainly in early childhood care” when in contrast there are some 4,000 teaching graduate’s still looking for work 4 months after completing higher education.

“Foreign nationals on 457 visas are working in schools and early childhood centres despite a growing glut of unemployed Australian teaching graduates” states The Sydney Morning Herald. Childcare centres and some specialist schools in non-regional areas got special mention as employers who may be overlooking local university graduates for TAFE qualified foreign graduates.

Stephen Dinham, professor of education at the University of Melbourne, told the paper that non-traditional colleges were turning out graduates, particularly in early childhood and primary, worsening the glut of university-trained teachers.

He said the dozen or so different routes into early childhood teaching, from a minimum-level TAFE diploma up to a master's in education from a university, made understanding the sector more complex than primary and secondary schools.

Unions on the other hand have blamed the need for foreign staff on the "inadequate" pay in the female-dominated early childhood sector.

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