|
Misha
Schubert
Melbourne, August 8, 2009 – AUSTRALIA is considering offering Somali
students scholarships in Malaysia - rather than inviting them to study
here - to increase the chances that they will return home rather than
resettle in Australia.
A senior government MP has written to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith
with the proposal, after the Somali ambassador to Indonesia raised the
idea on his recent visit to Australia.
Parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs Laurie Ferguson said
ambassador Mohamud Olow Barow was concerned to ensure that more talented
young Somalis would return to help rebuild their war-torn homeland.
"He was asking essentially for Australia's foreign aid program to
concentrate on Australian scholarships to Malaysia … because if they
come to Australia they are more likely to stay," Mr Ferguson said.
The deliberations come amid a renewed focus on migration after the
arrests of five men of Somali and Lebanese origin over an alleged
terrorist plot.
In an interview with The Age amid calls to rethink our immigration
intake, Mr Ferguson said he did not support cutting migration from
Somalia, which totalled 100 people last year.
"I don't think there is a case to reduce it," he said. "If one Albanian
Muslim had been involved in this whole thing, I don't think that would
represent an analysis of the total community."
But he signaled there were plans afoot within government to reshape the
resettlement services program to take more account of the issues that
were common to migrants from war-affected African nations such as
Somalia.
The next tender round for the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement
Strategy, due later this year, would factor in that 70 per cent of
migrants were under 30 and would target problems such as high
unemployment and intergenerational conflict.
Mr Ferguson also flagged adding to the orientation programs for
refugees, which currently are run before arrival in Australia. He said
there had been strong lobbying for onshore orientation to complement the
existing AusCo offshore training.
"The view is that perhaps when people are getting on planes to come to
Australia, they are not really listening," he said.
"We are looking at whether we have got to refashion orientation courses
here in Australia - perhaps it can be more effective with an onshore
one."
If there were lessons to be learnt from the events of the past week, Mr
Ferguson said, one was the need to keep a closer ear on the views of
ultra-religious Muslims and not just moderates.
There was a temptation to listen only to Muslims who were most critical
of radicals, which gave a distorted view of the mindset of the
community.
"If you only connect with the people who aren't a problem and not on the
verge of a problem, you are not getting enough feedback from the people
who are alienated," he said. "You have to be very careful that you don't
only listen to those who you want to hear."
Source: The Age, August 7, 2009
|
