Portable Professions

Did you know they need acupuncturists in Australia?

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Trade winds
Andrea Wren
The Guardian - London
Saturday April 5 2008

You want to make a change and build a new life abroad - but do you have the skills demanded by your chosen country? Andrea Wren looks into the careers that travel well.
What do piano tuners, glass blowers and acupuncturists have in common? They're all jobs that feature on the list of "in-demand" professions in Australia, whose points-based immigration system the UK is about to adopt. Yes, the biochemists, engineers and other more conventional professions you'd expect are there too. But among the 200,000 Britons who emigrate each year are many who have won their visas and permits in unusual occupations.

Like private investigator Dave Turner, managing director of legal agency The Parklane Partnership. In the UK, the firm's office is managed by his son, Colin, but Turner himself works in Bulgaria, where he has recently bought a house with his wife. Turner's work is definitely not run-of-the-mill, as his normal duties may include undertaking commercial investigations, tracking down absconding debtors, and seeking missing heirs to hefty inheritance cheques.

"A lot of our work involves tracing assets and checking whether people have what cash they say they have, or whether they have more stashed away in the country. Bulgaria is a cheap country to come to and hide money, and we investigate what people have or haven't got under instruction from solicitors, often in pre-sue situations."

Turner hadn't realised when embarking upon his search for pastures new that Bulgaria was going to be the place he settled on - it was, he says, last on his list- but after visiting, he saw the country's potential.

"Bulgaria is not only open for good investment, but for people who want to live and work here. The country is one in which we find UK money getting 'lost' by people who say they don't have any. As a business, we can offer a full European investigation service from here, which few other agents can do."

Now to Honduras and Cornwall College horticultural student Dan Kerins. If he is successful with a proposal he has made to Operation Wallacea - an organisation leading scientific conservation expeditions - Kerins will soon be helping the Hondurans grow fairtrade orchids and earning a new living.

"I had applied for a three-month job as habitat surveyor in Honduras with Operation Wallacea and while I was working on that, I got to know more about the lives of the locals," Kerins says. "Currently, they earn their income through growing vegetables, which involves destruction of the forest, so I came up with the concept of raising fairtrade orchids, which can be grown in sustainable ways."

If successful, the project Kerins has proposed will involve researching ways of helping the Honduran people to manage a sustainable economy through the orchid growth. He has received some positive feedback from Operation Wallacea, but now he just has to wait for approval and the "green light" on his proposal. If it goes ahead, though, he will only be able to work in the country for three months at a time, due to the visa. But he says he will be able to leave the country at the end of each stay to re-enter a few days later on a new visa.

Even if the fit between your job and your preferred destination is not an easy one, determined people can find a way. Music producer John Brough had initially been told there was little point in attempting a visa application to Australia, but he and his wife have just lodged an emigration application through Visa Unit, a migration service that supports and advises people through the application process.

"I went to a lot of agents and some didn't even consider me, but I have worked with the likes of U2, Jamie Cullum and Queen, so I found an agent willing to look around the problem," says Brough. "I have applied specifically for a Distinguished Skills Visa, which is aimed at people whose skills or qualifications are not on the primary occupation list but who could still contribute something to the country."

It may be 18 months before Brough finds out whether he and his wife are being granted the visa, and then admission is subject to passing medical examination. If all goes well, the visa will be valid for five years at a time.

However, even if your occupation is "on the list", other more formal qualifications may be needed too. In Australia, for example, the law has recently changed on this, explains John Mumford, managing director of Visa Unit.

"Last year the Australian government changed the points system for entry and Trades Recognition Australia changed the skills assessment process for trades people wishing to migrate into the country," says Mumford. "A new 'trade skills assessment' requires certain trade occupations to have a technical interview and practical assessment."

Nick Clayton, author of the Guardian Guide to Working Abroad, says there are other considerations. "Before you pack your bags, make sure that you have all the paperwork necessary to take up employment. In countries that have a federal system of government you may find that there is another set of local hoops to go through before you can actually take up a job, even after you've passed through national immigration.

"Australia, for example, is notorious for allowing skilled workers in, then not allowing them to work until they have completed onerous state tests and sometimes spent months in a local college to prove their qualifications."

· nextstepaustralia.com, expo-canada.com, working-abroad.net

for link to Guardian article click the title of this post

Conflict Between Ethics and the Law

A nursing mother and baby are left on a boat for hours because people are concerned about immigration laws. A nursing mother is detained and deported while her baby is placed in foster care - This is all happening because these mothers are not legal immigrants.

Does our paranoia about immigration and legalities override our sense of ethics? Australians obviously are concerned about this. What will happen in the U.S. - for example in Oklahoma, now that it will be a felony for people to give aide or transportation to undocumented immigrants -- If U.S. citizen in Oklahoma sees a mother and baby hurt by the side of a road, will the citizen keep driving by because of their fear of the new anti-immigration law?

The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
November 22, 2007 Thursday
'Security fears' delay boat rescue;
BOAT PEOPLE ROW Taking on water, a broken engine, and a breast-feeding baby on board but ...
By Katharine Murphy, Canberra, Brendan Nicholson, Perth and Mark Forbes, Jakarta


SIXTEEN Indonesians were left stranded for hours on a leaking wooden boat in the Timor Sea waiting to be rescued because of security concerns.

Crew members from the Jabiru Venture said they tried at least three times to convince their ship's owners to bring the group, which included three men, three women, nine children and a breast-feeding baby, on board their stationary oil tanker, but the request was denied.

The crew, who are members of the Maritime Union of Australia, said they believed the owners refused to intervene because of concern about immigration laws.

"We weren't able to bring them on board. As far as we know that's because of the immigration act," one crew member said yesterday.

But the owners of the Jabiru Venture, Perth-based company Coogee Resources, said their decision to leave the Indonesians in the boat on Tuesday had nothing to do with immigration laws. "Absolutely not," a spokeswoman said.

She said the 140,000-tonne Jabiru Venture was designated a high-security facility under federal legislation, meaning people are not allowed to board unless they have appropriate security clearances.

The spokeswoman said the ship's management had assessed the situation, tied the wooden vessel to the tanker with a grab rope and sent food, water and a pump to deal with leaking water.

"The boat was not sinking, the relevant authorities were contacted, the people were informed a navy vessel was on the way," she said.

But the crew members, who spoke to The Age on condition of anonymity, painted a scene of chaos and frustration which culminated in Indonesians and navy personnel falling into the sea during a dramatic and dangerous rescue effort.

"It was more than a debacle. You could hear the kids crying and we are stuck 40 feet above them and we can't do a thing to help them. We were told (by managers) it was out of their hands," one crew member said.

The crew member said the boat was first sighted at 9.30am. "The boat was there for a good number of hours. We said we wanted something done here but management refused. They said the navy was on the way.

"We were told we weren't allowed to put the life jackets down there. The boat was alongside us all day, it was obvious they were in distress. We wanted to bring the people on board because it was obvious that the boat was unseaworthy."

Once the navy rescue craft arrived it had difficulty handling the wooden boat in rising swell.

"It clipped the mooring line, which swamped the boat. Two or three kids ended up in the drink," one crew member said.

"Ladies were screaming. We threw all our safety stuff off the side. It was unbelievable, these people having to wait all those hours. The thing that incensed us was it wasn't necessary.

"We don't want to attack the navy, but we weren't able to bring them on board. As far as we know, that's because of the immigration act."

Crew members are believed to have taken footage and a number of photographs recording the drama.

Greens senator Kerry Nettle said a crew member had told her that the company had wanted to help, but feared a repeat of the 2001 Tampa incident.

The Indonesians, believed to be from Rote Island, were rescued by the navy and are now on board HMAS Tobruk, which is heading for Christmas Island where the people are expected to be processed.

Australian Defence Force spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic conceded the rescue was difficult because the boat was very crowded and unstable.

The events occurred 650 kilometres west of Darwin. Two Royal Australian Navy vessels, the landing craft HMAS Tarakan and the patrol boat HMAS Ararat, answered calls for help.

"A boat of that size, condition and circumstances is also far more susceptible to sea conditions than a larger boat, posing significant difficulties in trying to safely offload the passengers," Brigadier Nikolic said.

HMAS Ararat launched a rigid inflatable boat, but as it began the rescue two of the Australian sailors and six of those on the sinking vessel were thrown into the water.

The wooden boat began to sink faster and the rest of those on board jumped into the sea. They were all picked up and no one was injured.

It remains unclear whether the people are seeking asylum. It is highly unusual for Indonesians to seek asylum in Australia, with the exception of controversial Papuan cases.

The rescue took place more than 1000 kilometres from Papua.

Indonesian officials responded cautiously to the situation, saying the nationality of the group had not been confirmed.

A spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Ministry, Kristiarto Legowo, said Indonesia had been formally told the group had "admitted they are Indonesians".

A spokesman for Indonesia's Canberra embassy, Dino Kusnadi, said Indonesian officials would probably be sent from Perth or Darwin to interview the people on Christmas Island.

He said statements that the 16 were Indonesian were "claims Australia hasn't verified. We are very cautious about this; we would like to see a statement from Immigration".

Senior federal bureaucrats associated with the Howard Government's People Smuggling Taskforce met on Tuesday and yesterday and provided briefings to both the Government and the Opposition.

In contrast to the political crisis of the children overboard affair in October 2001, federal politicians were low-key in their response to the drama.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson praised the navy's efforts.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd said the Opposition supported "an orderly immigration system".

"We must always have vigilant laws when it comes to people smuggling," he said.

He defended his party's intention to shut down offshore processing in Nauru and said it was right that would-be asylum seekers be processed on Christmas Island.

From Lexus Nexus: http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T2551740110&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T2551740117&cisb=22_T2551740116&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=314239&docNo=23

Map: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AB605A_Timor06092004202841.gif

Immigration Policy Around the Globe

The title of the following article is offensive - but the information is worth having.
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The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
November 19, 2007 Monday
First Edition
Fear of 'migrant hordes' gazumped by need for cheap labour;
EYE ON EUROPE
James Button - Europe correspondent.


Migrants are pouring in to Western Europe, despite public disquiet.

IN THE past three years, as Britain has experienced the largest wave of immigrants in its history, opinion polls have shown a big increase in the number of people who are alarmed about immigration. The Conservative Party accordingly pledges to cut migrant numbers, while rattled Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown talks of "British jobs for British workers" - a slogan that was once linked to the far-right British National Party.

The parties look to be vying with each other to build Fortress Britain. Yet it has not happened.

Brown promises tighter skilled migration quotas and better border control to reduce illegal immigration, but neither will dramatically affect numbers. The Conservatives struggle to specify which categories of immigrants they would cut. Meanwhile the British National Party, for all the fears of Labour MPs in working-class seats where the BNP is strongest, simply fails to rise.

It is not just Britain. Three in four Americans say they want more controls on immigration, according to the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey. Yet neither main party in the US plans to seriously wind back legal immigration: the United States continues to take a million migrants a year.

The Pew Research Centre polled 45,000 people in 47 rich and poor countries and found that in 44 of them, majorities believed "we should restrict and control entry of people into our country more than we do now." (Australians, who were not polled, seem to be comfortable with their current high levels of immigration.)

Nevertheless, Spain, where 77% of people want more controls, is running a huge immigration program, with 4 million newcomers since 1996. Immigration to Italy is even larger - 700,000 a year - and 87% of people want more controls. Yet Prime Minister Romano Prodi has urged Italians to embrace the first mass immigration in their history.

What is going on? Are politicians totally out of step with the public, and is a reversal of policy therefore just a matter of time?
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Immigration is a fact of modern life and, despite periods of public unease, almost certain to remain so. That unease is hardly new. Arthur Calwell, the architect of Australia's postwar immigration program, was terrified of a backlash to his policy, and polls in the 1960s regularly showed that eight out of 10 Britons thought too many black people were entering the country.

If governments have dared defy public opinion, it is not out of brotherly love for foreigners but for hard-nosed economic reasons: to run factories and farms, to get streets swept.

Since the factories closed down in the 1970s and 1980s, Europe has struggled to integrate a mass of unskilled migrant workers and their children but even as it debates the perceived failures of integration, the clamour for new workers in new industries resumes.

Romanians, whose 500,000-strong presence in Italy is provoking huge hostility, are vital to the country's agriculture and aged-care sectors. Britain's biggest nursing home provider, the Southern Cross Healthcare Group, says it must have foreign workers because locals will not do the jobs (the pay is too poor). Without foreign doctors and nurses, former prime minister Tony Blair once said, the National Health Service could not run.

Could this new mobility of global workers be stopped? Yes, but probably not while the economy is good.

Many European countries are also experiencing high levels of emigration. Last year the Netherlands took 100,000 people but lost 130,000, while 200,000 Britons left last year - the highest figure in postwar history. Many of the leavers are skilled and must be replaced. Yet they are far less likely than earlier migrants to stay in their adopted countries. At least half the 400,000 Poles who have come to Britain in recent years are expected to go home.

The proportion of skilled immigrants is growing, and so is the number of countries from which migrants come. In Britain, whereas the first postwar migrations mainly comprised Pakistanis, Indians and West Indians, a report from the Institute of Public Policy Research names 18 groups of immigrants (including Australians) with populations of about 100,000 or more. As Australia's experience shows, more groups with fewer people in each makes the formation of so-called ethnic enclaves very difficult.

It would be wrong to be utopian. Immigration comes with costs, most of all to immigrants themselves, but also, disproportionately, to the poorer communities among whom many settle. There is evidence immigration is driving down low-skilled wages in Britain. Working-class concerns that it frays old social bonds should not be simply dismissed as racism.
Understandably, governments will want to manage migration in hard economic times or to ease public concern. They also have the right to make demands of migrants, such as language learning, which most want to do anyway. As Dutch sociologist Paul Scheffer says, if you demand nothing of migrants, "the veiled message is: you will never be part of this society". However, "when you make demands of newcomers, the receiving society also undertakes an obligation".

Over 50 years, millions of migrants have transformed and enriched Western societies, without provoking vast upheavals. Even so, British migration specialist Professor John Salt estimates that only 3% of the global population are migrants - a figure that has not risen for nearly 20 years. Australia is next door to 230 million, mostly poor, Indonesians, yet only a handful have ever tried to go to Australia.

There is no human tide overwhelming the West. Most people prefer to stay home.
James Button is Europe correspondent.