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Plunge in number of Chinese residents granted Australian citizenship

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 07/08/2018

The number of Chinese-born residents being granted Australian
citizenship has plummeted, amid a backdrop of tensions between Beijing
and Canberra and political debate over immigration levels.
Department of Home Affairs data obtained by Fairfax Media shows just
1559 Chinese-born residents have been granted citizenship during the
first eight months of this financial year - a fraction of the 6500
successful Chinese applications in 2016-17.
In previous years, up to 10,000 Chinese-born residents applied for
Australian citizenship, of which 8000 to 9000 were approved.
Between 2012 and 2016, residents of Chinese heritage represented 6 per
cent of total applications for Australian citizenship and 6 per cent
of total approvals. But the Home Affairs figures show that while the
number of Chinese applications has remained steady, the number of
approvals fell to less than 3 per cent of applicants between July 2017
and February 2018.

Zoe Ma has waited 17 months for her citizenship application to be
processed.
Photo: Joe Armao
While the figures represent only two-thirds of this financial year,
approvals would have had to escalate at a dramatic rate in the
remaining third to go even close to matching previous years.
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Over the same period, Indian approvals rose from 15 to 18 per cent of
all nationalities, while British hopefuls also experienced a spike
from 14 to 16 per cent. South African approvals were up from 3 to 5
per cent.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week delivered a speech designed
to help repair the relationship with China, which has been damaged by
claims of growing Beijing influence in Australia`s political, academic
and military interests.
But members of the Chinese community have questioned whether the
foreign influence row has damaged the citizenship process.
`I`ve lived here close to 45 years and this would be my worst two
years I have ever experienced,` said Hong Kong-born Sam Wong, a former
principal pharmacist at the Department of Health who was awarded an
Order of Australia for services to multiculturalism in 1999 and is the
chair of the Canberra multicultural forum.
`The only thing I hope is that [the lower level of citizenship
approvals]is not because of this current unfortunate foreign policy
tension between China and Australia.`
Immigration has been in the spotlight this year following demands from
some conservative MPs to lower the annual intake. The government has
also tried to tighten the citizenship application process but the plan
has stalled in the Senate.
Concerns over Chinese influence peaked in May after Liberal MP Andrew
Hastie used parliamentary privilege to accuse a prominent
Chinese-Australian businessman and generous political donor of
bribery. The allegation came months after high-ranking Chinese
politicians avoided meeting with Australian ministers as the Turnbull
government pushed tough new foreign interference laws.
The Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Alan Tudge,
declined to comment on the figures. His office referred questions to
the department, which declined to provide updated country approval
figures to June 30.
A Home Affairs spokeswoman said `the department does not place
â€˜restrictionsâ€™ on granting citizenship to people of certain backgrounds`.
Chinese-born Melbourne resident Zoe Ma has been waiting 17 months for
a verdict on her citizenship application. She delayed a visit home to
see her elderly grandmother because she feared her application would
be suspended if she went offshore. Her grandmother died last month.
`I`m so sad and upset,` she said. `No one can tell me how long it is
going to take.`
Permanent residents who are yet to become citizens are unable to apply
for public sector jobs, access HECS-HELP student loans, or get
priority access to sponsor their family members for visas. They are
also ineligible to vote in federal elections.
Fairfax Media on Thursday revealed the citizenship backlog had blown
out by 300 per cent, but a new leaked presentation from the Department
of Home Affairs shows the problem could be much worse.
There are now 241,606 people waiting to be approved for citizenship as
of the end of June, up from 188,848 in February. This latest peak
represents a a 425 per cent increase on the 45,985 waiting when Mr
Turnbull came to power in 2015.
Security screenings on would-be citizens have been ramped up inside
the Department of Home Affairs. The government blames the delays on
Labor for admitting up to 50,000 refugees, some of whom arrived
without documentation.
Labor MP Julian Hill, whose party was thrown into turmoil by former
senator Sam Dastyari`s relationship with Chinese donors, questioned
the Liberal Party`s approach to Chinese citizens.
â€œThe enormous, mysterious drop in citizenship approvals for permanent
residents from China raises serious questions which the minister must
answer,` he said.
The Australian National Audit Office is set to hand down its
investigation into the citizenship process in January.

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