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by Volpe 5165 days ago
One type of immigration (aka Student/Skilled migration) is based on points.

The rest are a mixture of bribery, and racism. (See parent-contributory, english requirements, etc).

All of the above only get you Permanent residency (You can't vote, or receive non-health related welfare).

Once you can speak and read english fluently you can apply for citizenship.

Hardly a 'points based system'.
1 comments
jacques_chester 5165 days ago
Granted; but skilled migration is still an excellent pathway to Australian citizenship via permanent residency if you've got desirable skills.

That said, Australians in turn have access to the E-3 visa in the USA, which is a pretty sweet ticket.

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Volpe 5165 days ago
> skilled migration is still an excellent pathway to Australian citizenship via permanent residency if you've got desirable skills.

and fluency in English.

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demallien 5165 days ago
Of course. Do you really think that it is unreasonable to expect citizens of a democracy to be able to speak the language fluently? I'm an Australian living in France, and I have to demonstrate fluency in French, and I don't see this as unreasonable. If you have been living in a country long enough to be applying for citizenship, you damn well ought to be able to speak the language - if you can't it is because you have made no attempt to integrate into your host community, and I fully get a country not wanting to embrace you in that case.
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quadhome 5164 days ago
No.

But, I'm bias in the opposite way.

The US doesn't have an official language. There is a free press with publications in almost every language. And, at least in the states I'm from (California and Washington), voting materials are translated into all the statistically significant languages found during the census. [1][2] (The Federal Government helps too. [3])

I live in Australia now. It's made very clear that English is the official language here. Different strokes for different folks.

[1] See: Voting Rights Language Assistance Act

[2] http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_203/activ_203.php

[3] http://www.eac.gov/voter_resources/voting_accessibility.aspx

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