Ausbuy

Immigration

September 11th, 2007

There is no doubt that the creativity and energy of countries like USA, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia owes much to the tides of immigration. It was like a practical demonstration of Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution”. The early immigrants did it tough. Only those with exceptional drive were prepared to stake all on a hazardous voyage to an unknown destination in search of a new life. There was no welfare state and social security waiting for them and they had to work exceptionally hard to prosper. They passed on this work ethic to their children. Many brought capital or skills, but others brought only themselves and a burning ambition to succeed. The country gained from them and their descendants. Skills can be acquired, capital accumulated, but the personal qualities are inherited.

The world has moved on and new circumstances and challenges have emerged in the countries which have traditionally accepted large groups of immigrants. Among these are: 

• A declining birthrate among their own citizens will run the risk of having them short on skilled workers to run the economy and provide a sufficiently large tax base.
• A generous and expensive welfare system has evolved which requires an ever increasing portion of the national income to pay for it.
  Immigrants, who cannot contribute to the economy, go on welfare which increases the money required. There is now in Australia a short waiting period for immigrants, but there are limits on what the economy can afford.
• Much of the underdeveloped world is facing a population explosion and its people are facing starvation in their own country. To immigrate to a country like Australia is like winning lotto. However, they have almost no employment prospects in Australia.
• Countries who recruit skilled immigrants gain tremendously as they have not had to spend money training them. However, the countries they left have lost a valuable resource they spent scarce money training.
• Countries like Australia can absorb large numbers of skilled immigrants, but are reluctant to allow more unskilled ones who are going to impact on our already overstretched welfare bill. This means that those who are a compassionate people do not like this.

The official immigration programme is well managed and offers few problems as people can see that it is managed in the national interest. However, the issue of refugees and illegal immigrants are the ones that rouse the most emotions. The refugee issue is handled through the United Nations and the people selected come from refugee camps overseas. They may be very different in appearance and culture and this can cause problems in some communities, but the gratitude they show for a new life eventually wins their hosts over. The real problem is the illegal immigrants brought in by people smugglers. As they invariably destroy their documents, we do not know what we are getting. The main problems would appear to be the following:

• If they land on Australian soil they can then appeal to the Australian courts and the department has to pay both sets of legal expenses. This process can last for years.
• The judiciary is notoriously unpredictable as they attempt to consider the legal rights of non-citizens, United Nations conventions and our unwritten constitution. The decisions often depend on the personal views of the presiding judge.
• They are held in detention centres while this process is taking place. This policy is supported by the ALP (who introduced it) and the Liberals, but minorities in both parties violently oppose it. Long term detention is not good for families, but the possible appeals can take a very long time.

The number of illegal immigrants was rapidly escalating and the Liberals introduced the Pacific Solution. This eliminated the judicial system and deterred illegal immigrants who felt Australia had been an easy target. Many people object to this on moral grounds. The number of illegals has dropped for the moment, but this issue is one which divides many of our members with both sides of the debate having strongly held views and giving no credit to the honesty of opposing views. We feel that both sides of the debate have valid points and we will only get a satisfactory outcome, which combines compassion and sensible economics, if they respect each others point of view. It is not an issue that lends itself to party politics.

These are Ausbuy Press! no comments.(View comments) Tell a friend

No Comments as yet »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL