Archive for the ‘Australian Immigration’ Category

islandreefjob.com

Tourism Queensland’s dream job to be caretaker of Hamilton Island, a remote, sun drenched atoll on the Great Barrier Reef, has been whittled down to 50 candidates from 22 countries.

The marketing campaign seduced 34,800 applicants that want to work in Australia for $150,000 a year job, in a multi-million dollar villa (for free), with all travel expenses paid.

The job itself includes producing videos for the web, keeping a blog and updating the photo diary for the whole of Hamilton Island (five square kilometres).

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Michael Searle: "There's no parachute for those guys anymore"

Changes to UK immigration rules for professional footballers wanting to play in the Super League have claimed a fourth scalp.

Greg Eastwood, the New Zealand international is the latest in a growing line of aussie and kiwi professional football players denied a UK visa on the basis of past criminal convictions.

UK visa applications for Michael Crocker, Toddy Carney and Greg Bird have all been turned down in recent weeks, all with chequered pasts.

“It’s just a further reminder that it’s no longer necessarily easy to take up that option of finding a club in the UK. And it’s a definite reminder of what the consequences are for not keeping your nose clean or stepping out of line,” said NRL chief executive David Gallop.

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As we have seen in recent news reports regarding sport, foreign players are becoming regular fixtures in sports teams worldwide. Only last week did cricket announce new plans for targeting international shores.

It seems that now the Aussies are turning to developing multi-cultural teams, with news just announced that for teams in Super 14 they will now be able to sign two players from overseas, this is after the Australian Rugby Union lifted its ban on foreigners.

In addition to this rule provinces will also be allowed to sign one marquee foreigner – who will never be available to play for the Wallabies – and a developing player yet to represent his country at Test, Sevens or A-team level.

It is thought that by turning to overseas players Super 14 will not only become more strengthened in terms of talent, but international interest will grow, as it has in other sports such as football.

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Snoop Dogg in da dog-house

You would think that travelling the world-over was just another part of an international rappers career, however it seems that yet again Snoop Dogg is having trouble doing just that and as a result he may end up disappointing thousands of fans who had hoped to see him on his recent tour as he awaits visa approval.

This time the visa trouble has occurred down under, where Snoop hopes to work in Australia. Snoop Dogg who has already faced probing and confrontation by UK visas officials has now come under scrutiny by the Australian immigration department.

The department has officially said that prior to him being given approved entry and being granted a visa it would first be conducting a character assessment of Snoop Dogg, including his criminal history.

Speaking to the Associated Press a department spokesman said that the rapper applied for a visa in July and the department carried out a preliminary assessment. He further said that “The department has now decided to do a full assessment of the character of the rapper and the department has begun this assessment.”

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Work in Australia

Australian immigration has introduced a seasonal guest worker scheme that aims to attract unskilled workers from the pacific islands. This has been initiated in order to fill agricultural labour shortages.

But as thousands of workers are expected to work in Australia on this temporary visa scheme, 14% of indigenous Australians remain unemployed. The recruitment of overseas workers is however still essential due to the high paying Australian welfare system.

For all Australians being on welfare will in fact pay more than entry level unskilled jobs on farms and the like. Therefore getting a job is a step down in financial terms for these unemployed. It is understandable why the unemployed would not choose to work laborious jobs when they could earn more by doing nothing.

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Worker bees and the machine

It seems that it is not just the mainstream industry sectors of Canada and Australia which are crying out for skilled workers. A recent report by ABC Rural shows that the bee trade is also suffering from a lack of workers.

The problem as highlighted in the article is that because visa restrictions for skilled workers are making it harder to bring professionals into Australia’s the bee trade and it is subsequently losing millions every year.

With the task of restraining bees and aiding them in their productivity of precious honey needing such specialist workers, the current situation regarding visas for the seasonal demands of such businesses is harming the trade.

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Epidemiology Report

The current technique used to test immigrants for tuberculosis (TB) is insufficient; this is according to a report composed by a group of researchers entitled, ‘Epidemiology of laboratory confirmed tuberculosis in Victoria, 1990 to 2004.’

In terms of current law, Australian immigration requires all those moving to Australia to be tested for TB via an x-ray. Although a positive result does cause outright visa refusal, but the application will not be processed until the TB has been treated.

Despite this 80% of TB sufferers in Australia are non-Australian born immigrants. This, it has been suggested is due to the techniques were cases of latent TB are likely to be missed. And it is due to this that researchers believe that the current system needs to be amended.

The researchers therefore propose that testing for latent TB should take place and follow-up consultations should be encouraged post arrival in Australia.

Global immigration, environmental concerns

A recent news article by ABC Australia raises an interesting issue of immigration being a major contributor to greenhouse gasses.

The report states that demographers at Melbourne’s Monash University fear that whilst immigration is increasing to a country the amount of emissions which are being produced and subsequently polluting the environment are too increasing.

They argue that population growth is the main driver of emissions but it’s being largely ignored by many a government as few are aware of such dangers.

The article reads that “researchers forecast that Australia’s population will grow from the current 21 million to 31.6 million by 2050 with almost 10 million of the people making up the net increase being migrants…As a result, they project that Australia’s emissions will have grown from the current 500 million tonnes annually to 800 million tonnes.”

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Back door to Oz

Although Australia and New Zealand have always shared a close relationship and both counties have for sometime attracted each others nationals to both visit and live, a new situation regarding country hoppers has been noted.

In a spate of New Zealand newspaper articles, New Zealand’s revenue minister, Peter Dunne, has described his country as a giant transit lounge as many immigrants ended up moving to Australia after stopping off in NZ.

Mr Dunne told Wellington’s Dominion Post, that nearly 20 per cent of the 37,000 New Zealanders, who went to Australia last year, permanently or for a year, were born outside New Zealand.

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Bloody big truck!

Skilled migrants have become an integral part of guaranteeing that Australia remains a competitive economic destination. Therefore industries throughout the country are welcoming immigrants with open arms.

The latest sector to voice the essential need for skilled workers from overseas is the mining industry in the Northern Territory province. This area is booming at the moment due to uranium and gas deposits, as reported by ABC News.

And how do they attract these immigrants? The Northern Territory government is promising high salaries that are difficult to turn down.

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