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Australia Could Ask Potential Immigrants About Their Values

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David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Australia could soon be asking potential immigrants about their values before they can stay in the country, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday.

As CNN reports, Turnbull is giving notice after his minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Alan Tudge, suggested Australia is becoming too much like Europe with its “separatist multicultural model” of open borders and liberal immigration.

Addressing a crowd in Tasmania, Turnbull said the “values test” is just a means to “one of the issues” that the government is assessing to ensure immigrants reflect the democratic values of Australia. He insisted despite the dark clouds on the horizon, Australia remains “the most successful multicultural society in the world.”

But the prime minister said that success is based on shared values.

“This is a country where 28 percent of Australians were born outside Australia, over half have a parent born outside Australia, but isn’t it remarkable that we live together in so much harmony because of the values we share?” said Turnbull.

Tudge echoed that sentiment last week at the Australia-UK Leadership Forum, saying that multiculturalism had to be based on “careful immigrant selection” and “immigration integration.”

“Our ship is slightly veering towards a European separatist multicultural model and we want to pull it back to be firmly on the Australian integrated path,” Tudge said, further adding that integration could avoid “ethnic segregation and liberal values being challenged.”

Contrasting the Australian immigration experience with that of Europe in the last decade, Tudge said countries like Denmark are unwilling to take control of their borders.

Australia has traditionally had an extremely tight immigration policy and only in the last two decades has adopted a more multicultural policy approach.

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