The question:
Hi Sherwyn,
Good to know you. You have one nice useful blog here.I'm planning to apply for a PR and move to Perth from Malaysia (yeah I know, everyone is running out of this country now). I was about to submit my application for WA sponsorship and stumbled upon some articles/websites says the crime rate in WA is quite high compared to other OZ cities and also other part of the world. Some claimed OZ has one of the highest crime rate in the world :-( . Do you have any thoughts on this? I know we have to be careful where ever we are but looks like from what I read the situation is worse than Malaysia. Hope to get you view/opinion on this....
I'm also moving without a job, I'm in IT line. Do you think I can find an IT job easily with a PR and without any OZ experience? I searched through some job portals i.e Seek and saw quite a number of vacancies. But since you are already there, hunting for jobs, sending out resumes, attending interviews, etc etc I'm sure you can explain more based on your experience.
Hope to hear from you soon before I put in my application. Yes, everything is on hold now until I can convince myself....sigh
Take care....
My reply:
thanks for your compliments.
Crime is everywhere and its really unfortunate that we can't escape it. However in comparison of Perth and KL; I really don't feel it as bad here than in KL. I mean I've lived in KL 80% of my life and I have never felt comfortable going into the city or even walking out to the streets outside my house! In Perth, I have no problems, no sinking feeling to be super cautious of every suspicious looking person.
From my experiences here in Perth, the main problems are drunk violence; so I avoid going into the City or don't even bother going out at night... I mean.. it is Perth.. there is really nothing much to do outside after 6pm. Knowing KL, these things happen back home too.. and how much of the actual crime does get reported in KL? I've never trusted any statistics provided as I know a lot of people (Malaysian culture/attitude) that can't be bothered to make police reports - "It's just too much hassle la.." or "Report so what? You think it will make a difference?" and even "Report just waste money only la.. Kopi here. Kopi There."
Quite honestly.. Can you tell me that you are not afraid of the Police in Malaysia? Some say they are the biggest triad in Malaysia...
In Australia; you speed, you get a summon with a nice picture of your car. Sure you have to pay an expensive fine and get some points deducted, but it sure as hell beats being threatened for a Kopi-O. Note here you don't get threatened and the cops are out there doing what they are supposed to be doing (catching bad guys), and that is more than enough for me. I don't know what or how the whole 'Bersih' thing is or will work out, but from what I'm seeing - they are putting up roadblocks to stop what is right than working out what is wrong.
As I know from the local Perth news, a lot of the robberies involve pharmacies (for drugs), brothels (cash ma), and mainly commercial outlets (food, money, etc). However I have friends that experienced a knife point robbery, but that was in Sydney. It could be probable that Sydneys crime rate is higher than Perth or even KL, but please don't quote me on that as I have no experience in any other city in Australia. Heck... I've only been in Perth!!!
I have seen a lot of vacancies for IT (and IS) on Seek and the local newspapers, but I really can't comment much as I'm not applying for IT jobs, I do not know how many years experienced you are, or what the companies are actually looking for. However, I can tell you that Job hunting here is not as easy as in KL. I don't know if its because I do not have Australian work experience or because I do not have a degree that i'm not qualified or because I have a name not everyone knows how to pronounce or I'm not as handsome/pretty as the successful candidate, but I have friends that are IT graduates and they work as McDonalds Supervisors, Casino Dealers, Bank Tellers, etc. So expect to lower the bar a bit as it is really tough to live on a saving divided by 3.2X..
By all means, if you can secure a job for yourself before the big migration, do it. I would also advice that there are higher chances of getting a job in the Eastern states, as they are more commercial based. Also make sure you have everything planned/in order before submitting your application - the application fees are expensive!!
I hope the above is more informative than it looks. Glad to help and thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to email me =)
All the best with your application and don't hesitate to email me should you require more assistance.
Best regards,Sherwyn
It really does seem a lot of Malaysian eyes are starting to open and the migration bandwagon is quite a lifesaver for a few of you... Oh well.. it's either Malaysians WAKE UP or time to WAKE UP Malaysia!!!
