Australian government wants to propose changes to Australian citizenship Act to make it harder for migrants and asylum seekers or refugees to obtain Australian citizenship. Moreover, Immigration Minister also has more power to rule over migrant tribunal decision to provide citizenship for these people. The Labour and the Greens are already made it clear that they will oppose this bill in the senate. But more importantly, it is a very concerning matter for Australian multicultural communities afraid that they would be targeted and discriminated against. FECCA (The Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia) is one of the many agencies lobbying hard to make the Australian government change its mind.
FECCA director, Dr. Emma Campbell explained why this proposed changed is unfair and discriminatory.
Emma Campbell said “ FECCA is very concern about a number of different aspects of the citizenship legislation. In particular, we concern about much higher English score in IELTS (International English Testing System) in order to be successfully in applying citizenship. We believe that this is discriminatory, because it impacts certain communities more than others. And those communities are just likely as any other community to make a really valuable contribution to Australian society.” For example, in previous generation of Australians, uh many many people came here to become Australian citizen without speaking very good English and sometime no English at all. But slowly they have improved their English as Australian. And FECCA believes that we should be helping people to improve their English, because that helps in their settlement processes. It helps them to integrate into the society but you should not be penalised for having poor English. You should be supported. And you should not be penalised by being denies citizenship because your English is not at very high level. And the level that has been required is extremely high, it’s IELTS 6. Now that is higher than that required by some universities to be foreign students. And that is deeply unfair particularly to some communities for whom, learning English is more difficult that other communities. So for example, if you are Northeast Asia or Southeast Asia, learning English to a high level, is going to time and will be more challenging for somebody who come from Europe for example. And also there are number of people who come here as refugees. Their educational pathway may be interrupted. They may even have some challenges being illiterate in their own languages. And to demand that they learn English to such high standard in order to become citizen is deeply unfair and deeply discriminatory.”
However Immigration Peter Dutton said that English competency is one way to prove that migrants and refugees actullay integrate and contribute to Australian society. Australian Priminister Malcolm Turnbull said it is part of Australian values and identity that migrants and refugees need to embrace and cherish. And that public should not be unreasonably anxious about English competency.
However Professor Mary Crock, citizenship law specialist from University of Sydney explain why we should and should not use English as a tool to screen migrans and refugees and agrees with Dr. Campbell’s remark.
Mary Crock mentioned that “ We should put the emphasis on people when they enter the country, and it is ok at that point to ask for English testing according to students or workers are requested to do or perform when they come here. But I think that at the level of citizenship, when we are talking about becoming a full member of Australian community, it is very unfair and it is discriminatory. We have a very diverse community here and it is ridiculous to say that you have to speak perfect English to be a proper Australian. That is not true. They want to change the citizenship act to make it harder for many people to become a citizen, particularly who come here as refugees.”
However, Dr. Campbell suggests that any communities concern about propose changes to citizenship legislation should write to their member of parliament that representing their electorate. Write to their political party leader or write to FECCA and its can help drafting submission about their concerns to Senate Inquires.
FECCA believe that communities should make their voices heard as it has worked with the 18C of Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act that the Australian government cannot change.
Hmong Australian Association, president, Mr. Va Yang also voice concern that it will have a great impact on Hmong community member whose English is poor.
Mr. Va Yang said that “ To have English competency at level 6 in order to become Australian citizen will be a big challenge for Hmong community. Some of the Hmong community member became Australian citizen but some are not. From my personal perspective, some of our Hmong community members in the age group of ranging from 25 to 50 years old are not very good at English. Therefore, it is sure that these members will face difficulties. So I personally believe that it is unfair for us migrants living in here in Australia. Even though we live in Australia, we have not study English extensively therefore the English competency is quite low.”
However, Mr. Yang said that members of Hmong community should voice their concern to Hmong Australian Association so it can organise a forum to talk and deal with this issue whether it should write a submission to senate inquires Australian government. End.
Mloog tau zaj xov xwm no ua lus Hmoob tau ntawm nod:
