While Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke’s expected announcement of new anti-immigration measures has been postponed, migrant workers, refugees and international students have already been hit by big rises in discriminatory visa fees.

Seona Cho, a community activist helping organise a campaign around several parliamentary petitions against these discriminatory fee rises, told Green Left that they are fuelling the wave of racist anti-immigrant hate, spearheaded by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.

“One Nation points the finger at migrants and the Coalition wants to strip non-citizens, including permanent residents, of access to welfare. Labor condemns this kind of racism — and then sends migrants the bill.

“On July 1, the Labor government suddenly imposed huge visa fee increases with little or no warning. That day, the Australian Korean migrant online community, that I am part of, with more than 90,000 members, erupted.

“Political discussion is normally discouraged on that platform because it can become so divisive, but that day the shock and anger were impossible to ignore.

“For us, this wasn’t just another fee increase. It felt as though the government had put a new price tag on our lives as........

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