Australia Plans to Raise More Barriers to Citizenship
Taken together, the moves put Australia at the forefront of a global movement to limit migration,
and to turn citizenship from something meant to help people integrate into what Mr. Turnbull called a "big prize" — a reward for having assimilated.
Populists in Europe, the United States and elsewhere — including, in Australia, Pauline Hanson, a senator who has called for a ban on Muslim immigration — have often
relied on this argument to rally frustrated working-class voters who fear Islam or believe they are competing with immigrants for jobs or government resources.
By DAMIEN CAVEAPRIL 20, 2017
DARWIN, Australia — When Nhan Do heard that Australia planned to make it more difficult to become
a citizen of the country he had called home for 25 years, he was overcome with confusion.
In the United States, millions of immigrants who could become citizens do not do so, often citing the expense and challenge of the citizenship test.
Here in Darwin, a northern outpost closer to Indonesia than it is to Sydney, and across Australia, there is little doubt
that Mr. Turnbull is focusing on immigration because his government is at risk of being toppled, by rivals on the right or left.
