jad n rich

Howard appears to confirm the 4 year wait, paragraph 7 in the link.


Love the fair dinkum test

Swot up now.

English language

History questions howard admits most aussies wont know

And the aussie way of life, rose tinted poms could score well here


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...2-1702,00.html

spalen

I wonder if they'll let people take the test in their natural language...

The (in)famous stories of the dark days of aus immigration policy when they would ask new arrivals off the boat a set of questions in english and if they couldnt answer they were put back on said boat and back home.

jad n rich

MIL's take on all this is, "they want the white australia policy back dear, but they have to do it in a more politically correct way these days"

spalen

I think she may be correct... They are using policies with massive impact on all migrants to try to stop a few rogue nutcases joining these christian cults.

jad n rich

That is exactly what its about but but they seem to have overlooked one small point, the 2 recent cases of links to terrorism, both are home grown born and bred aussie boys.

NIGENABBY

Hi

Please, this is not a comment on whether the new policies being proposed are good or bad, but with regard to the comment about 'most Australians would not know'

Have any of you seen the new questionnaire you must take for British citizenship?

Well, I have as I had to take it. It has questions about the % of people who live in Wales, who speak welsh, what % of the population is under 18 in the UK, questions about history of Britain and some quite obscure things as well. My husband looked at the book and he (a Brit) had absolutely no idea about what most of the answers to the questions were.

I would strongly suggest most Brits (and I appreciate that is not everyone) would struggle to pass the test without a bit of prior study.

I think the idea of a test is a good one (you no longer have to provide an English proficiency, as the test passes for this as well) I think it is the type of questions being asked that need reviewing and must be appropriate.

I would assume that the type of test Australia is talking about is modeled, at least loosely on the British version.

Just my thoughts anyway
Regards
Abby

spalen

Its based on the premise that Terrorists are too dumb to read a aussie history book before applying for citizenship ;-)

jayr

Surely it would be more appropriate to be tested in one of the 200 Aboriginal languages than English.

jad n rich

I think proof that people have actually gone more than 30klm inland from the coast should be part of the test. I cannot believe how many people have seen only the coastline and cites of australia, and chat about it with absolutely no idea what goes on outside suburbia.

Second thoughts a 6 month stint outback or remote, that would show dedication

spalen

being able to walk barefoot across a tarmac surface in December

jayr

I wonder if the English test will be written or verbal. Will people lose out due to poor grammar or pronunciation?

I think they should test on assimilation into Australian culture; here's some proposed questions:

"How many bundy and cokes does the average Australian need before beating their mate/wife?"

"What food comes in 'tasty' and 'mild' varieties?"

"At what time of a Friday afternoon should a suburban non-working mother open the first bottle of 'champagne'?"

"How often does Myer have a 20% off sale?"

"How many beers should you take to a BBQ?"

"How much is a Domino's Pizza with a shop-a-docket?"

"How much is kg of bananas?"

jad n rich

Ahh, along the lines of the seat belt test, leave car in sun for 3 hours then attach red hot metal to your bare summer flesh that always seperates the aussies from the immigrants

DunRoaminTheUK

I think that knowledge of expletives should be top of the list of need-to-knows after an Australian guy demonstrated to me at work how to respond to the snack machine not dispensing his crisps..

Vash the Stampede

Well said.

The UK already requires immigrants to learn English and show knowledge of life in the UK (see here.)

I guess it's all part of the "White UK Policy."

jad n rich

Vash, you really do stay home a lot dont you