Tuesday
13 September 2022, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Any replies to the organizer
- thormay@yahoo.com
Venue:
ZOOM online
Focus Questions
1. Since the origin of homo sapiens, people have always
migrated. How is this century different?
2. Should
Australia become "a big country"? If so, migration is the only
way that it can happen. [Note: In Thor's lifetime, 1945-2022,
Australia's population has already grown from 8 million to 24
million].
3. What has been your personal experience of
in-country and/or international migration? Why did you make
those moves? What did you gain or lose?
4. Countries like
Australia and the United States have been created from
modern-era mass migrations. (In 2020 29.1% of Australians were
born overseas). In fact, now there are many countries
increasingly like this (for example, Taiwan). Why does each
generation in these migration waves mostly resist the arrival of
the next migration wave? How many generations does it take to
create a new national identity?
5. Education and
prosperity correlate closely with short or long term migration.
Sometimes it is a pull factor for basic opportunity. Sometimes
it is a lifestyle exploration (e.g. tourism). What should be the
limits on human movement, both inside and outside countries?
6. What should be Australia's policy towards refugees? Here
is the scale of the problem: "At least 89.3 million people
around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among
them are nearly 27.1 million refugees, around half of whom are
under the age of 18. There are also millions of stateless
people, who have been denied a nationality and lack access to
basic rights such as education, health care, employment and
freedom of movement. .. 1 in every 88 people on earth has been
forced to flee" [UNHCR]
7. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of Australia's skilled immigration policy? Highly
educated people more and more are citizens of the world. Their
services are fiercely competed for by nation states, including
Australia.
8. What rights and obligations should
Australian citizens retain in Australia when they work as
expatriates overseas, sometimes for years. What intangible
services are they providing for Australia? (About half a
million+ of Australian ciitizens live overseas).
9.
Suggest some needed reforms for Australian immigration policy &
practice. Note: The current management of Australian immigration
is (in 2022) in serious trouble. There are huge visa backlogs,
and departmental morale is at rock bottom. In 2015 the
Australian Federal Department of Immigration was merged with the
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
10. Most
parts of the world have a grim history of forced population
displacements. Historically this has often gone together with
mass exterminations, even genocide. Few modern states have their
original ethnic populations. What do you know about these
earlier events? What are some present examples? Why are humans
so predatory to their own species?
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Extra Reading
Abul Rizvi [former deputy secretary of the Department of
Immigration] (August 23, 2022) "Immigration policy will be one
of the most contentious issues at the forthcoming Jobs and
Skills Summit". Brisbane Times @
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/immigration-will-be-the-most-contentious-issue-at-labor-s-jobs-summit-20220819-p5bbct.html
[Thor, comment: recommended reading. This man knows his topic]
[Quote: "In response to massive skill shortages, business
groups such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
will argue the skill stream of the migration program be
increased to 200,000 a year – a level never delivered in
Australian history ... The previous government’s decision to
provide students with unlimited work rights pleased some
business groups but trashed the reputation of Australia’s
international education industry, attracted unscrupulous
education providers who are essentially in the business of
selling work visas not education, as well as increasing fraud
in the student visa caseload and increased reliance on
cheating to pass exams and assessments. ... Improving visa
design and visa conditions will not be enough. The immigration
function of the Department of Home Affairs is facing a massive
cut announced in the March 2022 budget. Given the current
state of government finances, addressing this cut will be a
major challenge. ... Visa-processing officers have one of the
lowest levels of morale in the public service. This is the
legacy of their role being treated as second-class by the
department’s leadership. ... Having been incorporated into an
organisation where law enforcement is the dominant priority,
the culture of many visa-processing staff has become one of
spending inordinate amounts of time looking for petty reasons
to refuse a visa rather than legal, efficient and transparent
decision-making".]
Thor May (2014) "How Can We Treat
Refugees Humanely? – An Australian Perspective". The
Passionate Skeptic website @
http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/RefugeesInAustralia.htm
[HTML, best on a big screen] OR
https://www.academia.edu/6051758/How_Can_We_Treat_Refugees_Humanely_An_Australian_Perspective
[PDF. This article has had 25,377 views on academia.edu]
Thor May (2012) "The contest for Competence". The
Passionate Skeptic website @
http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/competence.html
[Quote: "If some people don't break the rules sometimes, then
a normal society will cease to function. Breaking the wrong
rules for the wrong reasons is like breaking legs though. And
if everyone breaks the rules, then a society will
disintegrate. A paradox? Yes. See how this cake is baked..." ]
Mandarin Corner (2022) "The Alarming Decline in
China's Birthrate". MC @
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQgEFNyfmtY (42
minutes)[Thor, comment: Highly recommended. This is in
interview format in Mandarin with English subtitles. The
interviewee gives a brilliant account of China's population
fluctuating between 10 million and 100 million for 1700 years
(depending upon wars & natural disasters), then exploding to
1.4 billion, then in just the last 3 years going into steep
decline as young women refuse to marry and give birth. These
recent enormous transitions have correlated with the biggest
rural to urban migration in human history, plus the rise of
universal education, especially for women. This case study of
human population change is repeating worldwide. and one of the
engines which is driving huge migrations both inside countries
and internationally]
Joshua Green (November 18, 2019)
"How Often Do Americans Move, and Why?". Mymovingreview
website @
https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/how-often-and-why-americans-move/
[Quote: "Each year, tens of millions of people in the US
relocate from their place of birth or current residence to
another location within the same city, county, state, country
or abroad. In fact, statistical data show that the average
American moves once every 5 years"]. [Thor comment:
Australians, like Americans, are also highly mobile.
Australian international mobility is also extremely high]
UNHCR (2021) "How many refugees are there around the
world?" UNHCR @
https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/figures-at-a-glance.html
[Quote: "At least 89.3 million people around the world have
been forced to flee their homes. Among them are nearly 27.1
million refugees, around half of whom are under the age of 18.
There are also millions of stateless people, who have been
denied a nationality and lack access to basic rights such as
education, health care, employment and freedom of movement. ..
1 in every 88 people on earth has been forced to flee"]
Wikipedia (2020) "The Australian Diaspora" @
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_diaspora
Rosie Lewis (August 30, 2022) "‘Guest worker society’
spurned by Andrew Giles". The Australian @
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/guest-worker-society-spurned-by-andrew-giles/news-story/3f72e55d58cbe832551ee8d01234f130
[Quote: "Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says Australia
cannot afford to become a “guest worker society” as he
recalibrates the migration system with a preference for
permanent workers. ... Australia’s visa backlog is sitting at
a little over 914,000, with one million applications waiting
to be processed when Labor won the election. There are 330,000
people on bridging visas. The red tape preventing skilled
migrants from taking up jobs in Australia will be a key focus
of the jobs and skills summit".]
Paul Karp (31 August
2022) "Mass exodus: Australia faces loss of 600,000 people and
skills recovery will be slow, Ceda says. Thinktank calls on
government to streamline visas to address ‘Covid-induced drag’
on migration system". The Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/31/mass-exodus-australia-faces-loss-of-600000-people-and-skills-recovery-will-be-slow-ceda-says
Eden Gillespie and Ben Doherty (4 September 2022)
"Only a matter of time before someone is killed in Australian
immigration detention, detainees say - As average detention
period blows out to a record 700 days, people inside say
centres are rife with violence, drugs, and overcrowding". The
Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/04/only-a-matter-of-time-before-someone-is-killed-in-australian-immigration-detention-detainees-say
Anthony Galloway (September 3, 2022) "Tens of
thousands of international graduates to work in Australia
longer". Brisbane Times @
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/tens-of-thousands-of-international-graduates-to-work-in-australia-longer-20220902-p5betx.html
[Quote: "Foreigners wanting to study nursing, engineering and
IT will be the focus of the federal government’s plan to lure
more overseas students to Australia... Select bachelor’s
degree holders will be able to work for four years after
graduating, up from two years .. All masters students will be
able to work for five years, up from three years, and PhD
graduates will be able to work for six years, up from four
years. ... Just 16 per cent of international students stay on
to work after their studies in Australia, compared to 27 per
cent in Canada". ]
Andrew Macaskill and Humza Jilani (September 7, 2022) "Liz
Truss's cabinet is Britain's first without white man in top
jobs". Reuters @
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/liz-trusss-cabinet-is-britains-first-without-white-man-top-jobs-2022-09-06/
[Quote: "Truss appointed Kwasi Kwarteng – whose parents came
from Ghana in the 1960s – as Britain's first Black finance
minister while James Cleverly is the first Black foreign
minister. ..[His] mother hails from Sierra Leone ... Suella
Braverman, whose parents came to Britain from Kenya and
Mauritius six decades ago, succeeds Priti Patel as the second
ethnic minority home secretary, or interior minister, where
she will be responsible for police and immigration".]
Peter Hartcher (13 September 2022) "The best of times in
modern history may be behind us". The Age @
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/the-best-of-times-in-modern-history-may-be-behind-us-20220912-p5bhaz.html
[Quote: "Clare O’Neil is responsible for confronting most of
the national security threats to Australia beyond the military
– espionage, terrorism, foreign interference, cyberwar,
criminal syndicates, smuggling of all varieties, and more. The
relatively unknown and unsung Minister for Home Affairs, whose
portfolio includes ASIO, the immigration department and Border
Force, has had a few months to study her new portfolio, and
she has some bad news for Australia: the best of times in
modern history may be behind us. Hostile powers have a
superhighway into our societies, otherwise known as the
internet: “Conflict is increasingly being played out in
cyberspace and attacking supply chains, utilities, healthcare
systems,” points out O’Neil in an interview. “All this is
coming to us in our homes and hospitals; it’s an essential
security issue for the country.” And a promised playground of
web-based fun – so-called social media – has turned out to be
a Trojan horse for malign interference. She doesn’t yet have
the answer, she says, “but I am thinking about it a lot”.
However, O’Neil has some good news, too: “I don’t think
there’s enough recognition of all the assets that Australia
brings to the challenge. Whether it’s the strength of our
social bonds, the fact that our parliament works and can do
things ... I see a really positive story for us here in
Australia – our country is so unified and strong compared to
almost any other country in the world"]
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