Bowen to meet Greek leaders over migration issue

The Minister for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen will meet with Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV) representatives following a letter from president Bill Papastergiadis.
Mr Papastergiadis contacted the Minister on March 31 requesting government assistance in the migration process for Greeks. He received a written response from Mr Bowen this week saying that the Minister would be happy to meet with GOCMV leaders in Sydney.
“We’ll organise a meeting shortly. What we plan to do first is prepare draft submissions on key issues, then invite members of major organisations in Melbourne to attend a general meeting where we’ll try and get broad case community support for this,” Mr Papastergiadis said.
In the GOCMV’s submissions to the Minister the community emphasises the importance of the Australian government in acting quickly and ensuring a positive outcome is reached in the migration process. Mr Papastergiadis also has a personal connection to the issue, after trying to assist a family member in migrating with her family to Australia. “Although she was born in Australia, she can’t bring her husband here. Instead she’ll have to travel here alone, find work, will have no Medicare benefits and then needs to get a guarantee by an employer ensuring the employment of her husband for at least six months,” Mr Papastergiadis said. “They’re splitting up families and it’s people who are Australian citizens.”
Additionally, the GOCMV has also established a Cultural Committee consisting of experts in the field migration and cultural matters and in the following two weeks a meeting will be convened of representatives of Greek
community organisations and other interested parties to formulate a series of recommendations to the government. This aims to provide a broad appeal to the GOCMV’s campaign. The Cultural Committee has already made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and one of the matters raised was that of Greek citizens seeking to migrate to Australia.
The office of the GOCMV is currently collating information relating to skilled and professional persons who wish to immigrate to Australia. Furthermore, the office has come into contact with senior associates of human resource agencies who have verified that the demand for certain skilled migrants will continue to increase in the future.