T800,

Genetics suggest there were four migrations of pre-European, different from each other. So, three of the four were invaders, like the Europeans. If memory serves, there was a 15,000 year break between the first migration and the second.

When ocean levels were lower, it was possible to more readily move down Asia/S.E.A. along wide beached areas.

There would have been many languages as you say. The idea of an "aboriginal nation" is a myth. There 300,000 to one million peoples here at the time of European occupation. These folks would have been diverse as Icelanders from Arabians. Australia was a nomadic Europe, before the Whites. Rites and ceremonies were traded. Perhaps, many societies were mystically/spiritally based.

Oliver,

Why do you say that "economic refugees" are only interested in money? a lot of them actually escape form situations which are truly terrible, for many it is not about getting a bigger car, it's about not starving.

They do not count as refugees because the Convention only includes very limited grounds for asylum, you have to be persecuted and for certain specific reasons, too, so if you are simply starving you don't qualify. But that doesn't make starving that pleasant, does it?

And anyway, I thought that economic growth and seizing the opportunities for a better life was part of western values, don't we pride ourselves of our entreprenurial spirit, or not?

I was reading some time ago of a failed asylum seeker in the UK who, when threatened with deportation, committed suicide so that his teen-age son could stay in the UK and have a decent life, are these the kind of people you think only care about money?

Has it occured to anyone that 'traffic to the West" is part of a divine plan to invade and reclaim all available land for Allah?

The supremist ideology of Islam and our egaliterian way of approaching the issue of race and values are like oil and water - the "fusion" will never happen under normal circumstances.

Hells Angel,

Well said re Tony Kevin! But, he has his head irretrievably jammed in a much darker and nastier place than the sand.

Schmuck,

I did not mean imply that all immigrants are economic refugees.

The main point I am trying to make is that civilizations grow when societies fuse, adapt and progress. If an immigrant population [Greek grannies and arranged marriages, above]are not willing to participate and create enclaves, it is counter-productive. I have lived offshore and by comparison see Australia as open [which is good]. But we don't want countries within countries.

Immigrants, remember your historical roots, by all means, but move on to the New World, and leverage the oppenness in Oz to "mutual" advantange.

My grandparents are Scottish/Irish but I am Australian [as were my parents]. I\perhaos, if I had Lebonese parents, like a student of my wife, I might say [as did an Australian-born student] that I am Lebonese. Yes! the student was born in Australia and called herself a "Lebonese". True.

Its not to do with race, its about moving-on and not taking a priori positions, against the flow of the best interests of Australia.

Schmuck,

ECONOMIC REFUGEES

I had a look back. I saw my comment. Here, I was not making a global comment about all refugees. Rather, people from Hong Kong and Singapore, who come to Oz for a few years, gain citizenship, then go "home". And home ain't Oz. Auastralia is not their heartland, it is an insurance policy.