{"id":4945,"date":"2020-01-24T13:04:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T13:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=4945"},"modified":"2020-01-24T13:04:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T13:04:53","slug":"city-welcomes-cheerful-brazilian-among-270-new-aussies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/01\/24\/city-welcomes-cheerful-brazilian-among-270-new-aussies\/","title":{"rendered":"City welcomes cheerful Brazilian among 270 new Aussies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"inner-head\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"inner-desc\">\nA joyful South American woman set to become a naturalised Australian credits our country\u2019s streamlined bureaucracy as the reason for her big move, perhaps surprisingly to many homegrown citizens.<br \/>\nSibele Lima from Curitiba city in the southern Brazilian state of Parana \u201cloves everything\u201d about her adopted country and will pledge her allegiance at City of Newcastle\u2019s annual Australia Day citizenship ceremony in the Civic Theatre on Sunday.<br \/>\nThe 33-year-old IT worker will be among 270 new citizens from 40 different nations to receive citizenship certificates at one of NSW\u2019s largest citizenship ceremonies.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Sibele-Lima-in-the-Blue-Mountains-inside.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/City-welcomes-cheerful-Brazilian-among-270-new-Aus\/Sibele-Lima-in-the-Blue-Mountains-inside.jpg.aspx\" alt=\"Sibele-Lima-in-the-Blue-Mountains-inside.jpg\" \/><strong><sup>Lima in the Blue Mountains<\/sup><\/strong><br \/>\nEach will receive their certificate confirming their citizenship from Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes, who rates welcoming people from diverse backgrounds among the job\u2019s greatest honours.<br \/>\n&#8220;Hearing the stories of many of these people really opens your eyes to how lucky we are in Australia, particularly in Newcastle,\u201d the Lord Mayor said.<br \/>\n\u201cWe are so fortunate to enjoy a safe, secure life as part of an advanced, pluralist society in a nation blessed with natural attractions and abundant resources. Sunday\u2019s ceremony and two other annual citizenship ceremonies are, for mine, the best way to celebrate that good fortune.\u201d<br \/>\nLima, who lives in Wickham, was bitten by the travel bug on a road trip to Brazil\u2019s north with her family aged 11, but could easily have been making a different oath in colder climes.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Sibele-Lima-inside-portrait.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/City-welcomes-cheerful-Brazilian-among-270-new-Aus\/Sibele-Lima-inside-portrait.jpg.aspx\" alt=\"Sibele-Lima-inside-portrait.jpg\" \/>\u201cMy first plan was Canada because I went on an exchange there when I was 18 and it\u2019s on the same time zone as Brazil and closer to home,\u201d recalled the Computer Science graduate, who moved to Australia on a skilled migration visa five years ago.<br \/>\n\u201cI was learning French and filled out pages and pages of hard copy documents to get a Canadian visa but I got no reply. I had friends in Australia who said it was just beautiful and that the process was very straightforward because it was all online. I applied for a skilled visa and got permanent residency, all in eight months.<br \/>\n\u201cOfficially becoming a citizen is going to be special because I feel very welcome here and I thank Australia for providing a way for immigrants like me to work.\u201d<br \/>\nLima travelled much of the world before a soft landing on Sydney\u2019s North Shore was followed by a move to Newcastle in 2018.<br \/>\nWhen not practising Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, she enjoys going to the beach and walking or bike riding through the bush, especially along the Fernleigh Track on her way to work in Charlestown.<br \/>\nBrazil is also spoiled with natural wonders but can\u2019t provide Lima the same sense of security and order as Australia.<br \/>\n\u201cIn Curitiba you are walking around with your purse held tightly and always looking over your shoulder, but here you can relax outside and leave your purse on the table when outside enjoying a coffee with friends.<br \/>\n\u201cThe news here is always about a shark story or a kangaroo, but in Brazil it\u2019s people died, armed robbery and politics coverage is just corruption \u2013 I tell my mum not to watch it when I go back there.<br \/>\n\u201cI hear people complaining in Australia about the train or bus being late and I laugh, because I\u2019m just so pleased to have a map timetable \u2013 in Brazil the bus just comes when it does.\u201d<br \/>\nSunday\u2019s ceremony will also see local Australia Day awards presented before a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/Splash-of-events-for-Australia-Day\">range of family activities are staged on the Foreshore<\/a>\u00a0from 10am-2pm.<br \/>\nFor more information about the City\u2019s planned celebrations, visit the City\u2019s Australia Day information page online at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/Explore\/Things-to-do\/What-s-On\/Events\/Australia-Day-2020\">https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/Explore\/Things-to-do\/What-s-On\/Events\/Australia-Day-2020<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A joyful South American woman set to become a naturalised Australian credits our country\u2019s streamlined bureaucracy as the reason for her big move, perhaps surprisingly to many homegrown citizens. Sibele Lima from Curitiba city in the southern Brazilian state of Parana \u201cloves everything\u201d about her adopted country and will pledge her allegiance at City of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/01\/24\/city-welcomes-cheerful-brazilian-among-270-new-aussies\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;City welcomes cheerful Brazilian among 270 new Aussies&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}