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Orderly migration, border security, and the safety of asylum seekers are all important issues, but the system we now have in place seems to be driven by fear, mis-representation, and the current national political climate.
It is hard to make the case that we are ticking the boxes for asylum seeker safety (if we keep them off boats by keeping them locked up in isolated locations are we harming them just the same?), meeting our international obligations, promoting ourselves as a generous and compassionate nation, or even acting in a way that we are all proud of.
But that's another discussion.
I'd rather take a moment to focus on how much immigrants enrich our nation. Most of us are migrants or descended from migrants. Many of our high achievers are immigrants... I'm sure I don't need to provide a list, we all appreciate that it would be a very long one. Migrants have enriched our culture. Just here in Townsville we recently celebrated Greek Fest which was another enjoyable and successful event. Migrants helped us build the Snowy River scheme. Migrant neighbourhoods in places like Sydney and Melbourne offer us rich experiences, and are places we willingly travel to. At the markets in Flinders St on a Sunday, we can taste food from Russia, Thailand, Brazil, and Germany.
But rather than rely purely on selected examples of the advantages, or focusing on anecdotal accounts of the benefits, it is perhaps better to rely on more tangible evidence.
The Conversation website recently posted an article by Charis Palmer titled 'Census Data tells immigration story: Experts'
An excerpt is published below:
The latest data from the 2011 Census reveals Australia’s unskilled workforce is on the decline, there’s been a 52.8% jump in people with a postgraduate degree since the 2006 Census, and more Australians are employed in the health care and social assistance industry than ever before.
Dr Healy, who is a research fellow in the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, said all of these trends could be linked back to Australia’s immigration program.
“Even in the face of serious economic decline, the Rudd Government broke with the historic pattern of Australian governments (in difficult times) and pushed net overseas migration to extraordinarily high levels,” Dr Healy said.
He added that immigrants as a group were more skilled than the general Australian population.
“The skill level of the population in general is signficantly due to the selection process for immigration,” Dr Healy said.
International migration is likely to be a factor in the jump in people with a postgraduate degree said Nick Parr, associate professor in demography at Macquarie University.
“Migrants into Australia have tended to have higher levels of education than the already resident population,” Professor Parr said.
The data also showed an increase in workforce participation, particularly among older women.
The full article can be accessed by clicking this link
Solving the asylum-seeker and migration issues that we are facing is difficult. I don't believe that there is a perfect outcome, but if we change the conversation, maybe we can agree on better policy. To take a step along the path to better outcomes for all, I'd suggest that it is high time that we moved past the emotion and the fear driven debate, and took some time to look at the facts and think in terms of what is best for our nation, combined with what is in the best interests of those who seek to become one of us.
What are your thoughts?