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Migration still has a vital role to play

By Bryn Gilbertson
Australian Outlook

THE Secretary for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), Andrew Metcalfe, addressed the Migration Institute of Australia (MIA) at their national conference in October.
His speech concerned the future of migration in Australia.
"Migration has played a major role in shaping the Australia we live in today... migration will be very much a part of our future," he said.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently announced that Australia had recorded its largest annual population increase ever. Overseas migration contributed 54 per cent of this growth. In the 2006-2007 programme, people migrated from over 200 countries, the top five being the UK, New Zealand, India, China and the Philippines.
In his speech, Mr Metcalfe outlined the DIAC plan for 2007-2008. He said he intends to enrich Australia with the well-managed entry of:

nearly 153,000 Migrants
13,000 refugee and humanitarian visa entrants
more than 230,000 temporary residents, and
more than 300,000 students visa entrants.

With the introduction of these targets for 2007-2008 Mr Metcalfe stressed: "The provision of high quality immigration assistance by migration agents to applicants cannot be understated.
"Visa and migration decisions can be life-changing, significant decisions. Therefore, we believe it is important to have strong mechanisms in place to provide clients with good advice and protection from bad advice."
Mr Metcalfe commented on the persistence of some agents who are constantly looking for 'loopholes' in legislation and policy settings: "A practice that could raise false hopes of a positive outcome and moves the DIAC's resources away from processing visas through well established pathways on their merits as swiftly as possible."
The DIAC have implemented an e-mail service and the Migration Agents Gateway Service, a web-site to provide "easy access to the most often used resources by migration agents. "We are racing to keep up with demand," Mr Metcalfe said.
"Australia's migration advice agents will continue to be significant players... contributing to the prosperous, vibrant and cohesive society that is modern-day Australia," Mr Metcalfe said in his closing remarks.