ABSTRACT Registered Migration Agents (RMAs), the practitioners who assist with Australian visa applications and appeals, play a crucial role in navigating these complex legal procedures. RMAs’ registration requirements, including those relating to English language proficiency (ELP), have thus garnered much attention, leading to government-commissioned reviews and inquiries, and amendments to regulations. The most recent changes have attracted scrutiny by the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, due to the unequal burden to prove ELP placed on different applicants based on their backgrounds. However, these new requirements ultimately came into force without the government satisfying the Committee that they were human rights-compliant. This article examines the most recent ELP rules for RMAs and the Immigration Minister’s justifications for these. Drawing on sociolinguistic scholarship, it finds that rules requiring general ELP tests, and categorically exempting certain applicants from testing, rely on problematic assumptions about the nature of language, and are therefore unnecessarily discriminatory. Given the government aims to ensure specific communicative competencies within the migration advice setting, the analysis concludes that these specific competencies should be the focus of any required assessment.

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“通用语言”和能力测试：对澳大利亚注册移民代理注册要求的严格审查

摘要 注册移民代理 (RMA) 是协助澳大利亚签证申请和上诉的从业人员，在处理这些复杂的法律程序方面发挥着至关重要的作用。RMA 的注册要求，包括与英语语言能力 (ELP) 相关的要求，因此引起了广泛关注，导致政府委托进行审查和询问，并修改了法规。最近的变化引起了澳大利亚议会人权联合委员会的审查，因为证明 ELP 对基于背景的不同申请人施加的负担是不平等的。然而，这些新要求最终生效，但政府并未向委员会证明它们符合人权要求。本文研究了 RMA 的最新 ELP 规则以及移民部长对此的理由。根据社会语言学的研究，它发现要求进行一般 ELP 测试的规则，以及断然免除某些申请人的测试，依赖于关于语言性质的有问题的假设，因此具有不必要的歧视性。鉴于政府旨在确保移民建议环境中的特定沟通能力，分析得出结论，这些特定能力应成为任何所需评估的重点。因此具有不必要的歧视性。鉴于政府旨在确保移民建议环境中的特定沟通能力，分析得出结论，这些特定能力应成为任何所需评估的重点。因此具有不必要的歧视性。鉴于政府旨在确保移民建议环境中的特定沟通能力，分析得出结论，这些特定能力应成为任何所需评估的重点。