Unemployment is peaking at 18 per cent and the people of Greece have had enough, flocking to Australia and other "positive" countries in droves to escape five years of recession and search for a better life.

As reported by The Guardian and News.com.au;

Since June, community leaders in suburban Melbourne claim to have been deluged with thousands of letters, emails and telephone calls from Greeks desperate to migrate to Australia, a nation seen as a land of opportunity, British newspaper The Guardian reports.

"They're all university graduates, engineers, architects, mechanics, teachers, bankers who will do anything for work," Greek community president and lawyer Bill Papastergiades said from Melbourne.

"It's desperate stuff. We're all aghast. Often they'll just turn up with a bag. Their stories are heartbreaking and on every plane there are more."

During 2011 some 2500 Greeks have moved to Australia, while officials in Athens told The Guardian that a further 40,000 have "expressed interest" in relocating.

Unemployment in Greece stands at a record 18 per cent as the country braces to enter a fifth year of recession.

Artist and curator Tessie Spilioti, 45, who relocated from Athens to Melbourne in 2010, told The Guardian she misses her family and friends in Greece every day.

"But Australia is a positive country. It's the land of plenty, there's a feeling of abundance and of opportunity," she said.

"That's missing in Greece. Instead people are panic-stricken, the vibe is bad, the psychology is bad and there's a feeling of almost being under siege."

To read the full article at News.com.au click here or to read the article at The Guardian click here.

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A New Zealand man is paying a hefty price for withholding information about his criminal history in his appliation for Australian citizenship - not only has he been sentenced to five months jail time, but Immigration officials are also considering revoking his citizenship.

In a harsh reminder that it is imperative and a legal obligation that all applicants of Australian visas and/or citizenship present all relevant and requested information in their applications, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) have shared a media release with further details of the NZ man's charges;

Immigration officials are considering recommending the revocation of the Australian citizenship of a New Zealand man who failed to declare his extensive list of criminal convictions a decade ago.

A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said the Australian citizen from New Zealand was sentenced today to a five-month jail term at the Mount Druitt Local Court in Sydney after pleading guilty to two charges of providing false information under the Citizenship Act 1948.

“He had failed to declare his extensive criminal history in an Australian citizenship application and as a result, consideration will now be given around advice to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen, as to whether his Australian citizenship should be revoked,” the spokesman said.

“The department is committed to taking action against people who enter Australia under fraudulent circumstances or who fail to declare their criminal history in an attempt to remain in Australia and gain Australian citizenship.”

The department now has in place arrangements to gain access to the New Zealand database to verify passport information presented by New Zealand citizens on entry to Australia.

“The defendant failed to declare his criminal history when he arrived in Australia or in his application for Australian citizenship,” the spokesman said.

”We encourage the community to provide information relating to immigration and citizenship offences and fraud.”

To read the full media release on the DIAC website, click here.

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At a time where skilled migration is playing an important role in addressing Australia's skills shortage (as a result of the resources boom), a Melbourne MP has come forward stating that skilled migration is actually adding pressure on Australian families.

The following excerpts from the Herald Sun explain further;

High immigration intakes are fanning negative feelings about asylum seekers and damaging national unity, a Labor MP says.

It came as new data reveal that Australia has one of the highest immigration rates in the world.

Outspoken Melbourne MP Kelvin Thomson said the tolerance of Australians had been stretched to breaking point by the quadrupling of skilled migration over the past 15 years.

''(This) has generated competition for jobs and housing and put pressure on family living standards,'' Mr Thomson said.

Mr Thomson wants net annual migration slashed by 100,000 to 74,000, which he says would still mean one of the biggest per capita immigration programs in the world.

The UK and the US each had a rate of 3.3, while New Zealand had 3.1 and South Africa 2.9.

Australia's net annual migrant intake was 234,000 over the five-year period, but is expected to fall to 174,000 during 2010-15.

This will mean a migration rate of 7.7 people per 1000 population, compared with 6.6 for Singapore, 5.6 for Canada, 3.1 for the US and 7.9 for Hong Kong.

Mr Thomson said cutting skilled migration would boost public support for a bigger refugee program because Australians were instinctively generous and good-hearted.

But Committee for Melbourne CEO Andrew MacLeod said cutting skilled arrivals would put local jobs and economic growth at risk.

''Rather than going on such flights of fancy, we should be putting pressure on our politicians to invest in the infrastructure needed for a growing population,'' he said.

Mr MacLeod said a spike in migration in 2008 had been a concern, but population growth had fallen and was now in line with a 50-year trend needed for economic prosperity.

To read the full article at the Herald Sun, click here.

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