Lisa and I were granted Australian permanent residency this week. Very happy! In a couple of weeks we will fly over to Auckland to visit my friend Tobias and get the new visa label in our passports. (Since we applied for the visa when overseas, we have to leave the country to get it – thus our trip to Auckland.)
The contrast between Australia and Sweden is quite striking.
In Sweden, fringe nationalist party Sweden Democrats have recently featured in the news campaigning on an anti-immigration platform and look set to win their first seat in the parliament in next year’s elections. Although Sweden’s official policy is not as silly as that, it is still quite difficult for non-refugee migrants from outside of the EU to move to Sweden.
In Australia, the government tries to attract the world’s well-educated young with special “Skilled Migrant” visas specially geared towards people in their thirties with uni degrees and unique skills.
I do not know much about foreign policy, but if I ran a country, I too would make it extra easy for young, educated people to move there. What a great strategy; old Europe pays for their education, then Australia gets them to relocate to the sun.
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