Australian Minister Reveals ‘People Swap’ With U.S. Before Backtracking
Australia’s immigration minister has retreated from claims that the refugee deal with the U.S. is a people swap, the Guardian reports.
Peter Dutton appeared to confirm there was a U.S.–Australia trade-off before later denying it.
The agreement for the U.S. to take refugees from Australia’s Pacific offshore processing centers is opaque. Australia has denied that the trade-off is acceptance of refugees currently in Costa Rica and not wanted in the U.S.
However, this week Dutton threatened that Australia would not accept the Central Americans until the U.S. took refugees from Manus and Nauru. After Australia’s foreign minister denied the people swap, Dutton then insisted his comments had been misinterpreted, saying it was “words games” and a “storm in a teacup.”
The Trump administration has cast the refugees’ fate into doubt with contradictory statements over the deal. Meanwhile, Australia’s opposition has demanded that the government release the text of the agreements with the U.S. but it has declined to do so.
Britain’s Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Against Spousal Law Brought by Refugees
The U.K. Supreme Court has backed the minimum income rule for foreign spouses that has separated thousands of families.
The case was brought by five appellants, two of whom are refugees, one from Democratic Republic of Congo and the other from Lebanon, the Guardian reports.
The appeal was against an income threshold that British citizens must pass to bring their non-European spouse to the U.K. The court said the threshold was “particularly harsh” but found no legal basis to strike it down.
Campaigners say the requirement has divided tens of thousands of families, including those of refugees. They also drew attention to the plight of “Skype kids” who have grown up away from one of their parents.
Starbucks Brand Perception Takes a Hit After Refugee Plan
Starbucks’ brand appears to have paid a price for its stance on hiring refugees, Business Insider reported. The coffee chain’s brand perception has dropped since it declared it would hire 10,000 refugees.
A perception tracker that measures whether consumers have recently heard about the brand in a positive or negative light has measured a two-thirds drop since January.
That was when CEO Howard Schultz published a letter saying Starbucks would hire 10,000 refugees worldwide in the next five years. Just before the announcement, 30 percent of consumers said they would consider going to Starbucks next time they wanted a coffee, but this is now down to 24 percent.
Some of the backlash may be based on false reports that the chain was hiring refugees in preference to U.S. veterans.
Recommended Reads:
- The Financial Times: Is Far-Right Populism Winning in the Netherlands?
- The Independent: The Government’s Cruel Immigration Policy Is Tearing My Family Apart – and Forcing Us Into Exile
- The Ottawa Citizen: Unclear Path Forward to Refugees From the United States
- EconStor.EU: Exposure to Refugees and Voting for the Far-Right. (Unexpected) Results from Austria