Australian balance

Yesterday was the final of a great period at this Australian adventure: My English course graduation. By the way, my final qualification was very high! 🙂 I’m very proud of myself, it’s the true! 🙂 And I’ve thought is a good moment to meditate about my actual situation here, in Australia. I have to think about the language, the work, the social life… actual and future, in the short, medium and long terms…

The language: English

The first important item to analyze maybe is the problem with the language. The problem or perhaps the opportunity with the language… I.e., my main goal when I decided to emigrate, was find a good life. But, to emigrate is often necessary to speak other languages… A good decision is to learn an extended language. Above all, when you are not sure of your destiny… 🙂 In this case, the decision was evident: This language should be English.

Furthermore, English always was my life pending subject, for many reasons: it is the unofficial language in the World, I need it in my profession, it is very related with my deeper and essential thoughts, etc…

Well, it was evident: I had to study English to achieve my new life! At that moment, the question was to study before or after I emigrated… Normally, the people often study before emigrate. But an habitual option is to study English in the country of destination. So, the intermediate option always seems the best option. The problem then was to determinate which level is necessary. And to answer this last question was necessary to see the country of destination, it culture, its laws, it government, etc…

In Australia the restrictions to entry are quite strong… It’s comprehensible! It’s almost the only country in the world which does not have problems with the important things: Economy, social stability, life level, etc… So, it’s normal that the Government try to protect this life style from its potential enemies… And the uncontrolled emigration seems the main potential enemy of that “Australian life style”.

Thus, now I think that to emigrate to Australia the best option is to come here with the best English possible. At least, an intermediate level (B1+). With a lower level is very difficult to find a job that permits to stay here paying your normal bills and the English course.

Work

In Australia there a lot of work and well paid. The problem is the access to this work. To prevent the massive entrance of emigration, the government keeps a lot of obstacles do not allow the access to the jobs for overseas people. Even if you have a good skills, a good degree, etc., the political about this issue is very restrictive.

To settle down in Australia you need a permanent residence visa. First of all, you need paid a big amount of money to get this kind of visa. Minimum 9.000 dollars plus some others bills associated. At the end, you can paid up to 12.000 dollars to get this kind of visa. It’s crazy.

Due the big amount of money that the government requires from the emigrants who want to settle down here, the most popular option for them is to look for a sponsorship. A sponsorship is a company that trusts with you and it assumes all the process to get the permanent residence to their overseas workers. Even they pay the visa although, normally they also want a commitment for a specified period of time. It’s normal.

But again, the Government come back to put its fingers at this normal process between companies and workers, trying to block this process. It’s tragically funny that all the implicated people are damaged for these strict laws: The company can not to hire this kind of people and these people can not work… Also, a lot of companies would like to hire them instead Australian people, because the most of them think that the emigrants are more committed and hard worker than the Australian people.

At the end, the only way to be sponsored is to work with an alternative visa (student, for instance) a brief period of time to demonstrate your value to the company. After that, the company may sponsor you for a permanent residence. Anyway, to get any working visa (permanent or temporary) you should past a general English test (IELTS) to access to this kind of visa. And the specified level that you must achieve depends of other parameters, as for example your age: To people above 40 years the English level is very high (seven of nine for permanent visas, it’s very high!).

Society

Once you can access to the job market it does not seem very difficult to entry at the normal society circles… Some people say to me that the West Australia, WA, is fairly different of the rest of the country. They say that in Perth, the capital of WA, the people are more relaxed and quite than the others Australian citizen. As well, they say that in Perth the people are more open to the emigration.

At the moment, I’m not sure what is the general behaviour and character of the people at this region. I’ve been very concentrated at my studies and work and I can’t have a good and objective opinion at this sense. The only thing that since my first day it surprised me, it was the willingness to help of these people: Normally anybody tries to help you if they can. But, in the other hand, they don’t annoy themselves too much for including you at their lifes. At the end, I think that this attitude is ok.

The future

Nobody knows his future exactly, of course. But is good to plan a little bit this one, at least in the short and medium terms. After that, we can follow this plan with the necessary changes.

My English is not enough to access to the permanent working visa. Maybe it’s not enough to a temporary working visa. But I work with a student visa I can stay here to continue improving my English. Three months will be few… Furthermore, I have time enough to stay here before to come back to Spain, to manage some bureaucratic problems before one year.

Thus, I think I should study six moths more (eight with the “working holidays”). Afterwards, it will be the crucial moment: To settled down with a sponsorship or to come back to Spain… No much time, because in my country the situation will not fix until a few years (five maybe?).

If I had to end my Australian adventure I think I would have to try other places in the World. Maybe North Europe? Maybe North America or South America? I don’t know. The only thing that now I know It’s that with  my “new English” I will have “all the World at my foots”… (Spanish expresion that I expect that it will easy to understand! 😉 )