A Long Way Home
Since the second half of 2017, some remarks from Australian Prime Minister Turnbull and its government members rendering the "China threat theory" have gradually made relations between China and Australia tense. According to Australian media, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull acknowledged that anti-foreign interference law formulated by the Australian government and the ever-increasing influence of Beijing in the Pacific region have resulted in tension between Australia and China.
As we all know, the Chinese are one of the main force of Australian immigrants. Every year, 70% of immigration quotas are for skilled immigrants; 30% come from families planning to come to Australia. According to 2016-17 data, most of the applicants of skilled immigrants were Asians, and the Chinese ranked second. Australia admitted the first Chinese in 1846 and now about 1 million Chinese are living in Australia. The process from 1 to 1 million is not a straight line. Due to the anti-China and White Australia Policy, it experienced several ups and downs.
Chinese migrants used to be expelled by White Australians in the early 20th century. After the White Australia Policy became less stringent since 1973, Non-European migrants began to pour in.
The 1980s to the 1990s witnessed a boost in Chinese migrants, which amounted to over 20, 000 at the peak.
Source: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au
In recent years, China has become Australia's second largest source of immigrants after India, with about 26,000 migrants in average each year.
The following chart is to show the rank of five major migration source countries to Australia from 1996-1997 to 2016-2017, which are the United Kingdom, China, India, South Africa and Philippines.
Source: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au
This website will focus on the historical changes of Chinese immigrants in Australia and the reason why so many Chinese people wish to stay in Australia under so many hard conditions.
The website will use data from Australian Department of Home Affairs and Department of Immigration and Border Protection to analyze the policy changes for Chinese immigrants and interview immigrants of different immigrant types at different ages to figure out the actual impact of policy changes on them.
When night falls on Sydney, Mandy Zeng leaves the office building on Kent Street and mixed into the traffic. It’s normal to see Chinese faces in the crowd— Sydney is now more Chinese than British. Over the past two decades, the number of Chinese migrants in Sydney residents has risen by 500 percent.
Mandy wants to be one of them. When it comes to the fifth year in Australia, she is still struggling with migration. Every day on her way home, she will linger in front of the Louis Vuitton store near her office, staring at the bags in the showcase.
“When can I get one of those fancy bags?” Mandy might ask herself. But after counting all the money and effort she has already paid to immigration, she comforts herself, “Things will turn better when I get permanent residency.” She nods her head, waiting for that day to come.
In the summer of 2013, as a 22-year-old undergraduate from a moderate university in a second-tier city in eastern China, Mandy landed on Sydney Airport to do her master degree in University of Wollongong, the scorching sun greeting her first overseas journey.
Mandy’s ultimate target is Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), a permanent residency visa stream which most international student strive for. Australian point test system of immigration involves many requirements of applicant’s status, from age to language. Theoretically, applicants who meet 60 points would have the chance to immigrate. But with soaring applications and limited positions, the higher the points one gets, the bigger the chance one holds.
Compared with the invitation result of 10 May 2017, one year later, the average score of the clients who were invited to apply in the 9 May 2018 (the latest round) has significantly increased.
In May 2017, 413 clients who got 70 in the point test were invited to apply for the visa, while the number in May 2018 is 0. Also, applicants who get 80 and 85 in May 2018 are far more than those in May 2017. It is calculated that the weighted mean of points score in May 2017 was 62.8, while the one in May 2018 is 77.5. The score has been raised by 15 points in only one year.
What does 15 points mean to those who are struggling to migrate to Australia?
Try the following table to see how much you may get in the points test system of subclass 189 visa.
The easiest and fastest way to raise scores is to get 8 in four components in IELTS, which can add 10 points to the total grade. However, this easiest way may be especially difficult for Chinese. Among the top three source countries of migrants (India, China, UK), China is the only one whose official language is not English. Although India, the top one source country, is also an Asian country, Indians’ IELTS performance is much better than Chinese.
According to the chart, in the latest demographic data released by IELTS, 2.33% of Indians achieved 8 in IELTS, while only 0.46% of Chinese got the same score. Fewer than 0.5% of Chinese applicants can seize this 10 points.
Therefore, most Chinese have to stay at home for months and even years just to prepare for English exams. It has been a common scene among Chinese graduates, many of whom, in their mid-twenties, rely on parents to support their daily costs.
However, Mandy has to work, because her parents did not give her financial support. Mandy’s first IELTS test result was 5.5 out of 9, which was too low to contribute to her points score. Then she took more than 10 IELTS tests in the meantime, most of which failed her expectation.
In intervals of work and study, she was very close to 7.0. Before her 13th IELTS, she went to Nan Tian Temple, praying to the Buddha, and finally got this precious10 points for language, 70 in total for her migration application. However, the standard has raised to 75. After experiencing four jobs and 13 IELTS, Mandy missed the chance again.
Why does the requirement of points score raise so vastly? The root cause is the sharp reduction of invitations issued during 2017 – 2018 program year.
According to the chart, ever since the start of 2018, only 600 invitations have been issued every month, while the maximum monthly invitations in last program year could reach 5154. In Australia, one program year starts from July and ends in June. 2017 – 2018 program year will end in one month, and the total of invitations is 14,700 now. This number is less than half of the sum of 2016 – 2017 program year, which was 30,524.
Where does the other half of invitations go? The Department of Immigration and Border Protection doesn’t give any answer. One possible reason is the additional path way to subclass 189 visa for New Zealanders launched at the beginning of 2017 - 2018 program year, which agrees with the sudden reduction of invitations from the start of this program year.
This new stream of subclass 189 visa has no limit of occupations, age, English proficiency, and even points score for New Zealanders. Among the only two requirements, one is holding a Special Category Visa, which New Zealanders will automatically get when they first arrive in Australia, and the other is five-year residency in Australia.
Because the Australian government didn’t expose specific applicants for New Zealand stream, one Chinese Migration Agency asked the government for access to the number of New Zealander applicants for 189 visa and received the sheet. It shows that a total of 5635 New Zealanders applied for this pathway from July to October 2017, while the sum of invitations in this four months was 10,000. This means New Zealanders took over a half of places in the first four months of 2017 – 2018 program year.
What’s worse than New Zealanders’ competition was that Mandy’s Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) expired in April. In order to stay in Australia, she had to enroll in an MBA course to hold a student visa (subclass 500). She goes to school on Tuesday and Wednesday, while works part-time on other weekdays.
Mandy believes everything will work out in the end. She is only 26, an age full of hope and challenges. She likes to stand on Pyrmont Bridge at lunch break, looking at the passing vessel inside the Darling Harbour. Out there on the Pacific Ocean may float a liner, she dreams, which would one day take her travel around the world.
“One day, when I get my permanent residency,” she says.
Am I required ?
William Zhu brought his family to Australia four years ago, as a holder of temporary work visa, subclass 457. His visa is about to expire, but he was rejected for permanent work visa, subclass 186, a month ago. He is lodging an appeal to the rejection.
A man in his forties, Zhu has no other option. He bet everything when he came here. He sold out his two apartments in Beijing, where house price has been soaring over a decade. When he handed out the keys, he knew he could no longer afford to buy them back. He quitted his job. His son pulled out of Chinese education system. And the family paid much money to migration agent.
Zhu is not a real required worker. The fact that people pay to get employer nomination is almost an open secret. 100 thousand dollars a person, and the intermediary would provide one-stop services. Normally, the agent would first help client get the temporary work visa of subclass 457. The client could hold the visa for up to four years, during which a company related to the intermediary would forge a payroll and pay some taxes for the client. When the visa is to expire, the client would be guided to apply for employer nomination scheme, and, if successfully, obtain the permanent work visa of subclass 186, enjoying all kinds of Australian welfare for the rest of life. The subclass 457 visa has been abolished and replaced by subclass 482 last year. Granted visas previous to the change are still valid.
Zhu doesn’t elaborate on why he was rejected for permanent work visa, but he lets slip that the company “failed to pay enough taxes” .The appeal will gain him at most one more year with a bridging visa, during which he could still stay in Australia, seeking his fortune.
Zhu spent 580 thousand dollars on his house, and bought 3,000-square-meter lands for another 300 thousand. He was confronted with five neighbors at Wollongong city council, arguing for permit to build houses to rent them out. “That’s a bold decision,” says a Chinese friend who lives in the same community, “He is not a permanent resident. If he returned to Beijing, he would have to take great pains to get rid of the house and land.”
Zhu hates to go back. The pollution, the work pressure and the education for next generation stressed him out. He would rather do some small software programming business based at home in Australia. In the backyard of his house roars a self-designed machine, mining Bitcoin days and nights. It even occurred to him to set another machine in the Chinese friend’s garden, but the noise and expensive power bill frightened the friend off.
Not only the problem of agent and family, the change of policy is also a tough problem that causes some people feel suffered -- the Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457 visa) was abolished and replaced with the completely new Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa. The Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said that: “Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs, so we are abolishing the 457 visa... We will no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians.”
Source: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/work/
http://tapri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/immigration-reset-7-August-2017-final.pdf
The occupations are the top eight for Chinese nationals for Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) grants. As the visa program changed, those occupations like cafe and restaurant managers, cook, advertising manager and advertising specialist were divided into the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL), which worries those people who do these jobs.
While the 457 visa lets a skilled worker travel to Australia to work in their nominated occupation for their approved sponsor for up to four years, the TSS visa is split into two streams with an occupation included in the two year TSS stream will no longer be eligible to be sponsored for a permanent entry employer sponsored visa. This ruling will sharply reduce the number of temporary work visa holders able to move to permanent residence by this route.
With the request of higher English level, richer working experience and stricter visa programs, the Chinese is bearing much more pressure in migration.
Lucky, or Lonely
Haiming felt blessed when she received an email this April, granting her subclass 143 visa, contributory parent visa, which allows her to live permanently in Australia.
Initially, Haiming had already accepted the fact that she should go back to China. However, later, the medical experience of her friends in Australia changed her mind. A friend who paid almost 50 thousand dollars to obtain visa 143, was cured of breast cancer with low cost under Australian healthcare system. In contrast, another friend in China sold a house or around one and half million yuan (300 thousand dollars) to get treated for the same disease.
“What if I developed a serious disease?” Haiming asked herself, “Compared with the medical cost in China, the fee of the contributory visa is still a good bargain.” Last June, she paid 50 thousand dollars and after one-year waiting, she received visa 143.
Haiming is luckier than her in-laws. The father of her daughter-in-law paid the contribution two years earlier, but his application is still in suspense, due to a lung shadow found in his physical check lately.
She also feels lucky for making decisions before policy changes. The income requirements to provide Assurance of Support(AoS) for parents, which means a legal agreement to give family members a financial support so that they can get a visa in Australia, has almost doubled this April, while later the raise was cancelled because of strong protest.
Source: Trading Economics, www.homeaffairs.gov.au
On 1 July next year, the minimum bonds for one parent and two parents will rise to $7,500 and $15,000 respectively. The whole diagram above shows the bond for AoS and the average wage since 2007, and the bottom bar depicts that the bond is out of reach compared to the income.
That’s because there are two types of parent visas. For non-contributory parent visa, sponsors only need to guarantee two years of welfare and put down a bond of $5,000, but there are only 1,500 places set aside for the type this year within Australia’s total migration cap of 190,000, which is a sharp reduction due to the ballooning queue.
The non-contributory parent intake has ground to a near-halt, with the department now warning applicants that they face a massive waiting time of around 30 years for the popular visa.
By comparison, there are more than 7,000 places this year for contributory parents, whose sponsors must commit to a 10-year welfare guarantee and a bond of at least $10,000. The current waiting time is roughly about three years for these visas, far fewer than the 30 years of the non-contributory one.
Haiming feels fortunate as well when talking about her friend, Sophie, who married to a Chinese-Australian citizen last year. Due to stricter policy, she has to wait four more years before being granted with permanent residency and social welfare. Her husband is now confined to bed and she has to do all the housework and caring every day.
Source: Parliament of Australia
The waiting time for parent visas is now getting longer, due to the sky-rocketing growth of Australian welfare spending. The chart above shows the proportion of Australian welfare to its GDP. The rate is getting higher and higher, implying why the government decides to extend the waiting time of parents VISA.
“I think gods are rewarding me for good deeds,” Haiming says. The 61-year-old woman is still delicate, having a slender shape and strong personality. In her forties, she took nothing but her son leaving her ex-husband. She did business since then, selling oil, running diner, until her son settled in Australia. She has several admirers over the years when she lived in Australia. “I could marry any of them and get permanent visa within nine months five years ago, but I didn’t. I didn’t use the loopholes in the system. I paid for myself instead.”
Holding the permanent residency, Haiming feels a load off her mind, with another still in the air. She has long pursued a reliable husband. She used to date with a local Australian for two years, but language and cultural disparity alienated them in the end. She feels no chemistry with the several Chinese admirers, but the wrinkles and painful joints always remind her that maybe it’s time to be less picky. Last week, she went to the doctor for gall stone, with no one’s company.
The weather of Wollongong turned bad suddenly on that day. Walking alone on the street, Haiming didn’t know what indeed made her feel cold – the drizzle night, or the loneliness?
Six years have passed since her first step on Australia. Coming from a medium-sized city of Nanchang in central China, the divorced nurse brought up her son alone, supporting him to University of Wollongong for master degree. When the boy accomplished his study, got a job with annual income of 80 thousand dollars and obtained permanent residency, he invited his mother to Australia, promising to give her a comfortable life in her golden years. But now, he is busy working in Sydney every day, while her mother lives alone in Wollongong.