Australia plans immigrant tests
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5373074.stm

John Howard always play the Race card, now he's manipulating the "fear" of Muslims.

They should have this in Cali. They got mad hispanics out here that arent suppose to be out here driving without a liscense. This ninja almost hit me then smiled the other day. Dude was in a old toyota pickup with like 4 kids in the back.

^Really what happen?

this motherfu-ker in this beat up toyota pickup decides to cut me off and almost making me hit him, then he smiled and sped off. This fool had hella room in front of him too. his taillights didnt even work.

^Should've pursue the fu-ker and give him the finger.

I remember in school, I was forced into taking spanish because it would be "more useful". Yeah, useful to trying to speak with mexicans that come to this country and can't speak a lick of English. Why the hell should I compromise for them.

Agreed..
Immigrants have chosen to relocate. It is incumbent upon them to adapt not the other way around.
An English literacy test is not unreasonable in an English speaking country. Highway signs etc are all posted in English. It annoys me when I call a government office and have to wait through a message in Spanish before I can move on.

All I know is I'm going to forget two years of Spanish right after I'm done with taking them Spanish courses.

I know I did. hahahah
Wait I took German for some dumb reason..

Spanish isnt that hard to learn actually. They say you can learn it almost faster than any other language if you look at the components involved. Same with French, Italian, Portuguese and language of that format.

your sig is so distracting

i've seen this test and i couldn't even get 100% nor could the majority of the people who participated.

you guys don't realise this test will apply for everyone. if my family were still immigrants even my grandma would have to sit for the test. my grandma has lived in australia since 1979 and she only knows the basics such has hello, bye, good, eat etc. but cant read a word of english let alone know who was the first prime minister of australia was or who the current australian cricket captain is.

using fear of terrorists and muslims not embracing australian values is an excuse for the howard govt who wants to bring back the white australia policy

Hahahaha. I feel you. Them muthafu-kas can't drive for $hit and they say Asians can't drive.

Humph. If I ever try to immigrate to Australia, I'll just $hit all over their tests. That'll teach em.

ridiculous....this is kinda like the 'White Australia' Policy all over again

Wil how can it be unreasonable for a host nation to expect immigrants to learn the language of the land in order to become a citizen? My sister immigrated to australia and she has no issues with the proposed testing.
Further more it is in fact unreasonable for immigrants to expect a host nation to adapt to their needs or wishes. ie dual languages on all public signs or goverment recordings.
If I choose to immigrate to china for example, then I feel it is upon me to learn the language both oral and written. I also choose to accept what ever form of testing, verification they think or meerly just want to implement no matter how strange or rediculous I find it. This is one of the pit falls of immigrating.

Dad, have u seen how hard these exams are?

THere are questions on Shakespeare's works and TS Elliot's poetry! And also questions on the Australia constitution! How the heck does a migrant know about that?

Sure it may not be hard for migrants who come from educated, westernised backgrounds but for the asian, african and middle-eastern peeps from places like Bhutan and Afghanistan? It's just too hard for most of them.

This is just some stupid government plan by Mr John Howard (who's always been a bit of a conservative, right-wing racist) under the pretense of stopping terrorism (so they claim), when all they're doing is denying all those refugees from the middle east asylum because a lot of white, upper-class aussies (these peeps are really influential) believe this formula is true;

The more migrants there are = the less jobs there will be available for white peeps = less profit for them (the wealthy, conservative, right-wing white peeps).

This is largely because migrant workers cost much cheaper (actually around 30-40% cheaper) than Australian workers on average.

Son I to doubt the wisdom of adding shakespear to the test. Questions should be about the country in question.
History, laws , basic questions on the constitution. An Immigrant wont know much of anything at first. In the USA you can't apply for citizenship for a mninmum of 3 years. That gives time to bone up. But you have a life time to bone up once you receive permenant resisdency. I don't know Australia's requirements. I do know that my sister has gained citizenship. Like I said before when you choose to immigrate to another country you also choose to abide by that countries laws and requirements. Many are less than fair, what in life is fair? I hate that my wife had to jump through so many hoops to come here. I hate that they are trying to give hispanics a free pass just because.
It annoys me that I can get a visa to visit Australia very easily and yet my wife because she is Thai may not be able to get 1. I choose to say fuk you australia I'll spend my money in Thailand. My sister can meet us there. Thailand has no requirements for a visa from US citizens.

That's good for Australia. I live in California and my parents are Vietnamese refugees, they or I didn't have f-uking bilingual education like other groups. Everyone in the family had to learn English to survive, there was no Little Siagon at the time, no signs in Vietnamese, but guess what, them and almost everyone in my family became pretty fluent in English and yes they all pass their citizenship. I spoke mainly Vietnamese at home, when I enter kindergarten I couldn't really understand anyone, didn't have bilingual education like the Hispanic kids, I still became fluent in the language still excel at school. Wow, hard work, people should really try it.

What's my point? When you emigrate to another country, learn to speak the language, know the laws and customs, and most important at all try to assimilate into the country. You have to try to fit in, that's the price you pay for immigrating to another country. Don't like it? Don't come over. You adapt, it's not the other way around. And trust me when I say, people are really getting sick with having to speak Spanish here in California.
And no not all of them are so called racist whites.

Well if you're going to immigrate to Australia, you SHOULD have to learn to speak English. What good is it to Australia to let a person migrate here and then bend over backwards for them? So that they can work illegally to avoid paying taxes and at the same time collect welfare?

Arriving as a refugee, now that is a different scenario altogether...

America has epidemic of this

I see it benefiting both the host nation and the individual wishing to gain citizenship.

This will work as a screening in a way and the person who must learn English in order to gain citizenship will also then have better access to the facilities that Australia offers e.g. work etc.

But adding shakespear is abit much .. maybe they should ask questions on Steve Irwin and Peter Brock

Don't know why some people are worried about immigrants getting more jobs while Australians (white, asians, etc) sit on their @$$ and receive government funding .. after all those immigrants are paying the taxes that are showing up in their bank accounts.

not really

I haven't seen the test. But from what people say it's a bit over-the-top.

Good point.....I know alot of people like that.

the difference is that the govt is forcing them to take english and history exams and these this tests are hard, majority of australians won't get 100%. i also think it's irrelevent to living in australia (learning about australian history). they should instead teach them how to speak english and what the fukk is australian values? ask a typical aussie bloke and he wouldn't have a clue.

refugee status should also have its limits. By all means it should exist, but by no means should it make the refugee exempt from assimilating into the host nations culture. I can understand someone arriving in their late 60's struggling to adapt. For those in this category a walk should be granted. But those arriving youth to middle aged?? No way.
For those using the normal Immigration route They must be required to adapt to the host nation.

^i totally agree, that's what got my peeved about the whole thing (the elderly participating in the test) and the way they're going about assimilating mirgrants.

Therefore, it's better for Australians to keep out as many migrants as possible otherwise we'll all have to do our jobs for a 30%-40% pay cut. Stuff that!


Majority of people doing exams don't get 100%. Period, however, a score of 50% is enough for a pass in most places. What do you need to score on this test that Howard is proposing to pass?

Part of any nations culture is its history. For example how and when was it founded. What kind of goverment does it have? How does it work? A value system?? wow how do you quantify that I wonder?
I believe english should be mandatory in an english speaking country. I am not sure that it should be the host nations responcibility to provide classes but It would be nice. I know here in the states many communities offer such classes at the local high schools as night classes.

you would think people who lived in australia all their lives will know the answers to australian values. i believe the average was 75%, highest mark was 87% and lowest was 52%.

the govt is just making it way too tough


many australians wouldn't know the answers either and yet they expect new immigrants to, it's setting a double standard really.

the way the howard govt is going about the proposal of immigrants taking a test ticks me off. the govt is making the opportunity of immigrants living in australia very limited, it's dissapointing.

Many americans can't pass a basic history or geography test either . They do have the benifit of being born a citizen. An immigrant on the other to become a citizen has their own set of hoops to clear. My wife being an immigrant has made me more sensitive to certain issues and even more strict with others. I have no mercy in my heart for illegals for example.

Well I remember in 1999, 20/20 did an investigative report on so called people passing their U.S. citizenship, and the show was implying that they were cheating or cheated to pass. This person who supposedly pass it doesn't even know who the first President was, but instead name Bill Clinton (who was president at the time), didn't even know what the 1st amendment stands for, didn't know what political system the United States was,
didn't know what D.C. in the nation's capital stands for.

Sure the Shakespeare question is probably out of hand for the Australian test, but damn you should know what politcal system your host nation is, who's the first prime minister/president. Where your nation's capital is located. The basic questions. And if you go out taking a citizenship test and you should be able to speak the language of the host nation or even become literate.

In fact I think the U.S. has been very soft with the illegal bull$hit in this country. Illegals cost the state of California Billions of dollars in public aid, lowers the wage of jobs, costs the public schools millions in bilingual education, and these people are not citizens or permanent residents in this country.

A basic language exam wouldn't be so bad, all the history stuff should be saved for citizenship tests.

To be honest, I don't even know who the first Prime Minister of Australia was... lol! I can look it up though.

^Edmund Barton- he view Asians as an inferior race!

Who cares? He's dead.

A dead bastard he is.

David > John Howard.

Aprrantly he went to my high school =( canterberry high =(

We have a test like this in the Netherlands. They ones made a tv-quiz out of it. The people scoring best weren't the Dutchmen, but the Chinese, we should be ashamed of ourselves. But real commotion didn't come until a soccer-player couldn't be integrated before the world championship, he didn't pass the test either. Lots of people here go crazy about soccer, and ministers make bad bondscoaches.

^saloman kalou

What are the Australian values?

We live in a muliticultural society and to say that there is a dominent "Australian value" or culture is highly racist! Is drinking Vb beer and playing footy representing the "true Australian"? And values such as, not stealing and not murdering people is pretty commonsense and is a prevalent moral standard to all countries.There are many immigrants who dont know how to speak english yet have contributed greatly to our nation. All they want is to provide their family with a better and stable future

Australia doesn't have a unique "value". The country was originally population by convicts from "Mother England", a whole group of male convicts spend months on a conviction ship (which is really gay, imagine the things they do) arrived in Australia and kill Aborigines.

Who?

Australia is so multicultural that 92% of the people are caucasian, and 7% asian. Yep! Multicultural for sure :P.

ummmms, but these 92 percent cacausian ppl are mainly Italians and Greeks who also have different cultures and beliefs! And to support that immigrants have contributed to Australia, it is no accident taht young Australians of years for 2006 have names such Alex Chong, Fleix Ho and Alen Ignor O Hran. They are rewarded for their all round high achievements and community service. And also if you havent notice, many immigrants work in factories and industrial areas which also contributed to the growth of our economy.

If Australia wants an immigrant test, I suggest they test people on their knowledge of aboriginal language and customs, and any white guy who doesn't know them should be kicked back out.

Its within a nations rights to demand immigrants take a test and pass it to earn citizenship. The test should be based on laws, history and the host nations constitution. I honestly believe a literacy test should be part of it. It does no one any good if an immigrant can't speak or read the language of the host nation.

Actually her name was Alice Chang... lol, don't get that mixed up . And was Felix born in Australia or overseas.. it didn't say on the Australian of the Year website.

About that last point, anyone who works contributes to the growth of our economy. People who don't speak a word of english (aside from children for obvious reasons) will have a lot harder times integrating into society, are more likely to be jobless and claiming welfare payments... some of them possibly even be working illegally.

I'm not against immigrants, but Australia needs to have some standards.


LOL! A stand up comedian in the making here folks! Seriously, only white guys who don't know the aboriginal language? You know how many aboriginal languages there are? Half the aboriginals themselves can't speak their own language, they should then be kicked out too right?

With most of the ingrediënts coming from Europe, and now that others move there they want them to adapt to their culture. What sense is there in that? We're not from here but can live here, but you can't.