Australian Immigration Policy Analysis

This assignment delves into a critical analysis of Australia's current immigration policies. It examines various aspects, including the controversial 457 visa program, its economic implications, and the criticisms surrounding it. The assignment also explores the impact of Australian refugee policies on both individuals and the healthcare system, referencing relevant statistics, expert opinions, and government reports. Finally, it considers the broader social and political context surrounding these policies.

RUNNING HEAD: POLICY ANALYSIS
ASSESSMENT TASK 1
AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
PUBH632: PUBLIC HEALTH LAW & POLICY

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
To
The Hon. Nick Xenophon SENATOR
The NXT Party
South Australia
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
PO Box 6100
Email: [e-mail]
21 September 2017
Dear Senator,
Proposal for Amendment in Immigration Health Policies of Australia
We are writing this letter on behalf of the Refugee Council of Australia with a concerned focus
on the current immigration policies meant for the refugees in our country. As per the recent
immigration health policy, the refugees arriving from high-risk countries are not subjected to
medical assessment if the duration of stay is temporary. But the more serious change that has
been very recent is the immigration policy that is supposed to act as deterrent to those arriving
without visas; in this case it implies the immigrants who have fled their original nations.
Nothing is intended here to disregard the national integrity but the reforms are supposed to
put considerable impact on the immigrants who either arrive by boat or are detained
somewhere at remote locations without ever being granted entry to Australia. Opaque
detention system and health assessments imply unethical practices. As per a generated report,
it has been found that visa systems and immigration health policies which are currently active
interfere in the nation’s humanitarian phase and its reputation in the international arena. In a
way, the asylum seekers are being completely rejected at the first place (Sanggaran & Zion,
2016).
Being loyal to dual sides has become the major problem of healthcare professionals who often
suffer from ethical dilemmas because of these stringent immigration policies. While their
employers want to comply with the government, these people want to perform ethical
practices and serve every care seeker impartially. Unfortunately this is not the case with
refugees. The changes in immigration policies have been witnessed when students with either
temporary or permanent visas are not entitled to special significance or additional health
assessments (FSCI, 2017).

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
Host Country Average Number of Arrivals in the year 2011
Australia Around 5000
Greece Around 100
Italy Over 60000
Spain Around 5000
Yemen Over 1 lakh
The increase in influx of refugees from overseas regions has been large in recent years following
the people who have experienced persecution in their parent land or have been through
humanitarian crisis. Over 50,000 refugees have arrived on the Australian coasts within a period
of 5 years up to 2013. As a politically hostile response, the immigrants who arrive through boats
have been rejected from entering the country by means of changes introduced in Australian
immigration policies. The conditions for refugees have been worsened further because of the
penal actions taken against asylum seekers and under-transparent detention system. Just to
cite an example of our detention system, presently such situation can be witnessed if
somebody visits Manus Island where Rohingya muslims have been detained (RCA, 2017).
We strongly support the critics who question on the Australia’s reputation on the Global theme
of human rights when it comes to sending the immigrants back from arrival and crediting it a
measure towards preventing death at seas. Some do not realize that the just like the resistance
offered to further asylum, the reforms in Visa program and related immigration policies are
motivated on the basis of racial factors. Notably it has been reported as per data provided by
BBC that assessment on entry of asylum seekers is carried at offshore locations like Nauru and
Manus thereby, leaving the chances for inhuman treatment and the inside-story of such
assessments. Some experts discuss about the lifestyle degradation of Australians while
completely ignoring the conditions of those immigrants who yet haven’t entered the mainland
(BBC, 2016).
The reforms in Australian Immigration Health Policies as of the year 2017 further highlights that
Australian media has denigrated the image of entire refugee population under a single domain
without considering the origins and belief systems of diverse groups. The table provided
previously illustrates the vagueness of criticality that is emphasized by the Australian media
regarding asylum seekers. According to AO Officer Menadue (2013), a research paper released
by Australian parliamentary library in past year revealed that the rate of refugee influx in
Australia is comparable with that of other OECD countries. At both sides, the rate of refugee
inflows almost coincided in the year 2011. In fact, the rate of inflow in Australia has declined
since the year 2001. The Australian media has been aggressive in its stance for welcoming
immigrants.

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
15 - 24 25 - 34 45 - 44 65 - 74
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Access to Specific Mental Health Services as
of 2011
English Speaking Citizens Non-English Speakers
English Speaking Immigrants Non-English Speaking Immigrants
According to Koziol (2016), in the year 2011, Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed something
unusual. Subsidized mental health services, as was brought into effect for the welfare of
refugee population, in actual practice brought negligible change as the immigrants who were
non-English people did not have a proper access to the health services. The media argues on
the privileges gained by immigrants while in real practice, change in immigration policies cannot
compensate for the unfair practices already prevalent in the country. The findings from various
credible sources cite that the immigrants and non-English speakers are at disadvantage as
compared to the nationals but the same is not highlighted by the media. Especially, mental
health services have been almost ignored when it comes to outsiders. These outsiders
dominantly include the refugees that seek shelter because of persecutions and torture in their
parent land and therefore are likely to have suffered more from psychological implications.
Despite acknowledgment of government on oppressive regimes being the cause of high influx
of refugees, the modified immigration policies are a sort of reluctance for accepting those
coming through seas. Mandatory detention for indefinite periods is observed by Australian
allies as an unfriendly behaviour towards asylum seekers. Considerably, these altered polices
have caused the physicians to choose from conflicted interests between political deterrent for
refugees and acceptable, ethical & fair healthcare services. For example, a doctor who treats ill
refugee children is supposed to discharge them back to detention centre. This is not a proper
practice sending ill conditioned children to detention are highly damaging to their recovery
rates (Kraal & Vertovec, 2017).

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
The immigration health policies can be related to the general dimensions also. Filtering out
immigrants for high-skilled vs. low-skilled professions is a two folded argument. Many have not
observed the wider aspects of either of the two. The preconceived idea has been that all
provisions for jobs that are meant for immigrant visa holders are a burden to the present
population of Australia (Louis, et al 2010). Very less are aware of the margin drawn between
the low-skilled operations and the high-skilled operations. The latter needs competence and
adequate level of training which the present government might not be able to achieve at faster
rate. Thus to compensate the vacancies for highly competitive posts, it is required of the
legislators to consider the hurdles the reformed immigration policies might introduce by
making the arrival of immigrants almost impossible, especially for those immigrants who are
skilled and prove to be assets. As far as the reforms are concerned, the new ideas are
recommendable to attenuate the over-influx of low-skilled immigrants but it should never be a
followed as a discriminatory practice based solely on racial backgrounds. To support the
assertion, few experts on the corresponding topic strongly argue that high-skilled immigrants
shall prove to be more productive to Australia than the low-skilled immigrants when it comes to
payment of taxes and reception of selected services if the health provisions are made
favourable for refugees. The major conflict that the government can face is the conflict
between capricious outcomes of economy and ethical values for treating outsiders with
discrimination (Alvarez, 2017).
Under the current standards defined under Australian immigration policies, the people who
have been detained at offshore locations somehow are subjected to healthcare services that
are operated using local subsidiaries. But the problem with these subsidiaries is that they are
owned by international companies which again demonstrate favour towards Australian political
institutions and therefore do not provide ethical healthcare services. The health assessments
are carried out while the immigrants are dog-tired and unclean. There are documented
evidences present to reveal the dark side of medical assessment including destruction of
medical records, absence or intentional emptying of required medications, ignored and
unregistered individuals etc.
In addition to the above opinions, there are other significant facts to support our concern over
the reformed immigrant policies announced by the prime minister. During the alterations
brought about in the Visa program, no research organisations were included which is quite a
notable thing to ponder upon. The policies have been framed in accordance to the
recommendations received from departments concerned with employments, academics and
training of the workforce. HR departments have acquired expertise in recruitment procedures
and do not possess the required analytical abilities to design strategy for workforce generation.
The 3 aspects of reformation including the need for a defined line of proficiency in English, a
non-uniform selection criteria for perceived Australian value and a less reasonable residing
period of 4 years are not justifiable even in case of real assets whose only limitation is literary
capacities. In a subtle way, the multicultural image that Australia is recognised for at the global
arena has been challenged due to the tightened visa programs. It is apparent that the policies
are used intensively for achieving political ends within the country. The altered policy for health
assessment is a part of such ill political agenda (Killedar & Harris, 2017).

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
As the Senior Policy Advisor of RCA, on behalf of the corresponding NGO representing the
refugee population in the country, our opinions are all justifiable and relevant as the
documented evidences belonging to various authentic sources including reports, statistics and
news article. By putting the above mentioned subject to the light of the concerned area of
control and assuming your powerful position as a senator, we people call you to revisit the
reforms being introduced to the immigration health policies of Australia and consider the
proposal made for implementing changes to the immigration policies as it deems necessary and
sounds fair and justifiable (Olliff, 2010).
The entire team at Refugee Council of Australia would appreciate your future decisions to hold
meetings for exchanging insights on the same sensitive issue.
Sincerely,
ABC, Senior Policy Advisor, RCA or the Refugee Council of Australia

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
References
Alvarez, P. (2017). Is a 'Merit-Based' Immigration System a Good Idea? Retrieved 22 September
2017 from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/trump-cotton-perdue-merit-
based-immigration-system/518985/
Buse, K., Mays, N., & Walt, G. (2012). Making health policy. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Chang, C. (2017). Why Australia’s 457 visa system is a rort and needs to be reformed. Retrieved
22 September 2017 from http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/why-australias-457-visa-
system-is-a-rort-and-needs-to-be-reformed/news-story/558a64513e416b3946d137ca8c39c8b4
Department of Immigration and Border Protection (2017). Migration programme statistics
Retrieved 22 September 2017 from
https://www.border.gov.au/about/reports-publications/research-statistics/statistics/live-in-
australia/migration-programme
Formula Corporate Solutions India, 2017. AUSTRALIA – Changes to Immigration Health Policy.
Retrieved 29 September 2017 from
https://www.formulaindia.com/home/news_details/92/AUSTRALIA-Changes-to-Immigration-
Health-Policy
Gothe-Snape, J. (2017). Criticism and confusion inside government over 457 changes. Retrieved
21 September 2017 from http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/06/21/criticism-and-
confusion-inside-government-over-457-changes
Killedar, A. and Harris, P., 2017. Australia's refugee policies and their health impact: a review of
the evidence and recommendations for the Australian Government. Australian and New
Zealand Journal of Public Health.
Kraal, K., & Vertovec, S. (2017). Citizenship in European cities: Immigrants, local politics and
integration policies. Routledge.
Louis, W. R., Duck, J. M., Terry, D. J., & Lalonde, R. N. (2010). Speaking out on immigration
policy in Australia: Identity threat and the interplay of own opinion and public opinion. Journal
of Social Issues, 66(4), 653-672.
Menadue, J., 2013. The Flow of Asylum Seekers to Australia follows world trends. John
Menadue. Retrieved 29 September 2017 from https://johnmenadue.com/244/
Olliff, L. (2010). What works: employment strategies for refugee and humanitarian entrants.
Sydney: Refugee Council of Australia.
Parliament of Australia (2017). Senator Nick Xenophon. Retrieved 21 September 2017 from
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=8IV

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR NICK XENOPHON
Regional Council of Australia, 2017. Recent changes in Australian refugee policy. Retrieved 29
September 2017 from https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/publications/recent-changes-
australian-refugee-policy/
Sanggaran, J.P., Haire, B. and Zion, D., 2016. The health care consequences of Australian
immigration policies. PLoS medicine, 13(2), p.e1001960.
Soldatic, K., Somers, K., Buckley, A., & Fleay, C. (2017). ‘Nowhere to be found’: disabled
refugees and asylum seekers within the Australian resettlement landscape.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (2017). Australia asylum: Why is it controversial?
Retrieved 21 September 2017 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28189608