rhian .. if you don't feel that way, then you're not part of the community I was talking about .. clearly the author is of a different community as she does not understand what is it about waterborne asylum seekers that make them despised .. the general community disagrees with you and the author and despises these people .. that's the perception the author has and does not understand why .. hence the article.

Politicians understand, which is why they pay attention to the community's feelings in this, they don't pander to the people who want to open the doors to everyone to come on down, they pander to the community who does not want these people .. but feels restrained by the noisy minority who carp about UN conventions.

Your second point you have answered yourself. I said clearly, this is the perception in the community .. in response to the author's question .. why are they despised. What I said was "One perception - boatpeople, of Islamic background, do not like us and have no intention of "fitting in" .. the key word is perception, it may be an incorrect conclusion, but that does not make the perception vanish.

Don't cherry pick .. I can see you're irritated by a home truth, sometimes you have to have it in plain print to understand the rest of Australia does not agree with you or the author.

I hope you understand better now what the rest of Australians, that the politicians clearly respond too, think.

Rhian- willingness to catch a boat and risk dangers could just as strongly imply the huge increase in living standards we offer (as opposed to all of the countries they passed through to actually get here).
For somebody in Afghanistan to even REACH the boats that take them here would require passing through Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and finally Indonesia.

Evidence of non-integration would be the events leading up to the Cronulla riots, the calls for Sharia system to dominate the UK, and of course the angry protests of the Danish Mohamad cartoons calling for beheadings, the murder of Theo Van Gough for blasphemy- there are definitely signs to suggest many people DO only come for our material conveniences while holding the host population in utter contempt.

Briar Rose - you completely missed the point of what I was saying .. the law demands that they be treated in a certain way, so they are.. that issue is settled and done with. The point I was making is that they are queue jumpers - they are gaming the system and pushing aside far more deserving causes.

Activists who support them are turning their backs on those more deserving cases in favour of the ones who push in.

This is not fair, as I'm sure you'll agree, so the law should be changed so that anybody who arrives by boat should be sent back, as I'm sure you'll agree. The issue is not the acceptance of refugees, that's already set out in the system and remains. We still ge tthe same number. It is the acceptance of the genuinely deserving, poor over the queue jumpers.

Amicus
You’re right, I’m not part of the community of racists who base their opinions on unsubstantiated, self-reinforcing prejudice. I am, however, no less part of the Australian community than you are.

King Hazza
How does the murder of Theo Van Gough demonstrate that boat people arriving here hold Australia in utter contempt? And is your concern only for Moslems – what about other boat people?

rhian .. ah, I see, you have no substance so resort to name calling, as an admission of defeat. btw, islam is not a race

you're cherry picking again .. read hazzas post and you'll see what he is saying, it is completely valid

Curmudgeon, I didn't miss your point - that would be an impossibility - I just don't agree with you, or share your "queue jumper" premise.

As well, your argument is irrelevant, given our legal obligation to accept for assessment anyone who asks for it. You'll have to change that law for your argument to have substance in reality.

So there's really nothing much more we can say to each other - we will have to agree to differ.

Formersnag and rpg - don't you think that if it was legal to do so, politicians would send boat arrivals back? We've agreed to accept all asylum seekers from any country for refugee assessment, and our domestic laws reflect that UN agreement.

Doesn't matter how much you complain about it, that's the reality - if you don't like it lobby your federal MPs to change it.

It's not my job to educate you about these matters and I don't have the time- they're common knowledge - try Google.