Latest news on #OperationForceBack: Controversial Australian Border Force visa checks, Operation Fortitude cancelled

Migration Alliance encourages Australians to protest by way of civil disobedience by way of unwarranted and excessive show of force.  We are calling the protest #OperationForceBack

Officers from the Australian Border Force (ABF) will be positioned across Melbourne tonight and tomorrow night and have said that they will be speaking with anyone they cross paths with.  

Under s189 of the Migration Act 1958 an officer must 'reasonably suspect' someone before they stop and search them.   Under the Migration Act, there is not a broad power to stop and search a person without suspicion.

The ABF can't issue a general warrant to cover the whole of the Melbourne CBD to in-effect give themselves 'open access' to the general public.

Is a person who is born in another country, but is then abandoned by their parents in Australia while still a child, entitled to Australian citizenship?

Our compassionate instincts may prompt us to think that the answer to this question should be “Yes” and that a person who has been left to fend for her or himself at a tender age should be given the benefit of Australian citizenship.

Whether one agrees with the proposition that there should be room to grant Australian citizenship on compassionate grounds or not, those feelings of compassion will conflict with the “hard reality” of Australian citizenship law as it now stands.  This was demonstrated by a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia that was decided late last week, SZRTN v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015). The judgment in SZRTN effectively confirmed the interpretation of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 that was articulated in another similar case that was decided by a single judge of the Federal Court earlier this year, Nicky v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015) FCA 174 (5 March 2015).

This year’s Migration Alliance Significant Investor Visa (SIV) road show hosted by NAB kicked off in Melbourne last night, where attendees loved the opportunity to gain insights directly from fund managers who will be looking after their clients complying investments.

The Sydney event is this coming Tuesday, 1^st September, so don’t miss the chance to hear NAB showcase their offering under the new SIV investment framework and how they can support you and your clients.

Speakers include Suzanne Gilham from NSW Trade and Investment, NAB’s SIV Concierge team of migrant banking and wealth professionals, and leading venture capital lawyer Deborah Johns, from Gilbert + Tobin.

Almost half of the number of people who can call themselves Australians are born overseas or have both parents born overseas. However, these new Australians, despite their immense contribution to their adopted home still face the uphill task of being accepted.

For most of Australia’s history since European settlement, migrants from Europe and specifically the United Kingdom have been the dominant arrival group. This trend continued well into the mid-late 1900s. In recent decades however Asia has become the main source region for migrants, particularly from Southern Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan) and Chinese Asia (China, Mongolia, Hong Kong and Taiwan) according to the DIBP report, “The Place of Migrants in Contemporary Australia”.

In terms of their contribution, the report says that migrants and their children contribute significantly to the Australian economy. Its data shows that the children of migrants achieve high level qualifications when compared to the general population. Many migrants have high employment and education rates and strong English language skills.

However, in terms of attitudes, the report state that surveys have found that although Australians are generally accepting and welcoming of other cultures, there are sectors of the population for which less tolerance exists and in which problems are evident.

Some say the biggest devaluation of the Chinese currency in 21 years which wiped billions from stock markets came as a surprise and could severely affect the AU$18.1 billion education industry in Australia.

Maryland University finance professor Albert Kyle told The Australian that the devaluation will result in a slowing down of the interest of Chinese businesses and investors in Australian goods and services. This could include Chinese demand for education in Australia, as well as demand for property in Sydney and Melbourne, according to the report in The Australian.

“I think it is going to affect my business and also a big business in Australia, which is educating Chinese students…So that is an export market that will probably shrink since the parents of the children have less discretionary money to afford these relatively expensive degrees and that is why the Australian currency will depreciate along with the Chinese currency,” he said.

However, other analysts disagree and say that the devaluation will have a limited long-term impact on Australia’s education sector.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham told The Australian that the bank didn’t think the currency would fall much further and Australia’s higher education sector would continue to benefit from China’s rising middle class.

“That’s a medium-term structural trend — it doesn’t really get thrown off by what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks or even the short-term cyclical weakness we’re seeing in China,” Mr Bloxham said.