TNAG-2644-FCO40-3837-Emigration-from-Hong-Kong-overseas-rights-to-abode-and-passp-1992 — Page 66

Aante 572

UNCLASSIFIED

11 February 1992

cc; Mr HoWICH,

RAD

mr Walder Mr Thomas

Worth reading.

then, Pla 20021

•

TCF Flear Esq MVO

South Pacific Department

FCO

Thea

Tim,

British

High Commission

Canberra

4

Commonwealth Avenue

Yarralumla

Canberra, ACT 2600

-FPA 341/1

RECEI

TRY

Telephone: (06) 270 6666 Facsimile: (06) 273 3236

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TRY

AUSTRALIA: IMMIGRATION

Summary

Prime Minister

1. Immigration level again in the headlines. charges Opposition with racist motives. Conflicting studies into advantage of migration. Announcement of next year's migration quota probably in May: cut likely.

Detail

2. Immigration has once again hit the front pages. This is in part a reflection of the time of year: Mr Hand (Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs: DILGEA) has begun his annual round of consultations with pressure groups in preparation for Cabinet recommendations about the next financial year's migration quota. But it is more than just the consultations which has generated this year's level of debate. Australia is in deep recession and many question the sense of maintaining a high immigration programme when unemployment is well above 10%. The tenor of press reporting of the debate suggests that DILGEA have already begun a softening-up process to prepare the ethnic lobby for a further migration cut. As reported in my letter of 13 June 1991 to Iain Lindsay, the current quota is a significant reduction from the 1990-91 one. Last year's reduction of 15,000 was sold in part with the sweetener of an intention to go for modest expansion in the following two years: it looks as though that pious hope has run into the sand. Most observers now expect a further cut next financial year.

3. I attach the latest statistics from the Bureau of Immigration and Research (BIR). For the first time (so far as I am aware), Hong Kong has replaced Britain as Australia's major source of new migrants. If Asian migration is combined, its total is more than double that from the whole of Europe. This worries plenty of traditional (ie Anglo-Celtic) Australians. Against this background, it is perhaps no surprise that accusations of racism have resurfaced. Indeed, the Prime Minister has sought to make some political capital out of this sensitive subject. In an interview in late January, Mr Keating accused some Opposition MPs of basing their calls for lower immigration levels on concerns about Asian

/ immigration