Hang on Alan, Australia has been taking 13'000 a year, that has been the annual quota. That is now being increased to 20'000 a year.

So we are doing our share. If you want to go on the European guilt
trip, so go and then land up with slums full and racial tensions,
just like them.
Once again, Australia cannot save the world. Address the problem at its core, as I have mentioned before, rather than trying to plaster it over with feelings of empathy. All very sweet, but hardly rational.

Don't blame me if Pashtuns hate Hazaras and Hazaras hate Pashtuns.
If Sunnis hate Shias and Shias hate Sunnis. This tribalism has been around for a long time. If the Taliban are invading Afghanistan, go and see Pakistan.

Fact is that your UN 51 Convention is so full of holes, you would
not have a clue as to who is an economic migrant and who is a genuine refugee. Easy fixed, take the 20'000 from refugee camps, not just the rich ones, as we have been doing. What about the Burmese who don't have 2c? etc.

What France has done or Britain has done is hardly a guide as to what we should be doing. Go and ask the French wether their slums full of Algerians are such a good thing

Australia should do what is good for Australia, not writers, not journalists, not the "International community".

The fact is that many(?), most(?), some(?) of the immigrants have contributed to their plight by their lifestyle, their culture, and most of all, their religion. If they accept a faith that doesn't believe in equality, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, then why the hell should they be allowed to come to Australia? They come and they bring their ideology and problems with them. Any country that takes in Muslims is asking for trouble - just look at France, England, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Greece and so on.

Yes, there are good Muslims, but collectively they are a minus. Most will not integrate and they will not accept or respect the 'other' (perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Quran says we infidels are lower than animals). Look at how Muslims treat nonmuslims where they dominate if your have doubts. Try to find a Muslim that will be honest about the hate and violence in the Quran, the evil deeds of Mohammad or the way they treat others. Good luck but don't hold your breath while you search.

Immigrants, yes, Muslims, no.

We are so politically correct and blind to the nature of what is called "multiculturalism" that we ignore simple, obvious facts. Compassion is fine, but use your head, too.

<< Just looking at the waves of refugees Australia has accepted over the centuries… it would appear all refugee groups have made a highly positive contribution to Australia's rich multi-cultural community>>

Abso-bloodly-lutely !

And that’s just the half of it.

Alan neglected to mention that some of our most influential community leaders came to us that way.
This guy, for example: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/11/08/1131407637648.html
He’s famous for the line: "According to my religion, jihad is a part of my religion and what you have to understand is that anyone who fights for the sake of Allah, when he dies, the first drop of blood that comes from him out all his sin will be forgiven."

As did some of our most dynamic enterprising entrepreneurs. I’m told on good authority that this guy: http://tinyurl.com/884npkm
owns a chain of retail outlets in Kuala Lumpur (and since settling in OZ has acquired two or three houses!)

And some of our most principled citizens --freedom fighters even.
“dozens of young men to return to their homeland to join Islamic jihadis against the Ethiopian-backed Somali forces…”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/somalia-jihad-drive-probed/story-e6frg6of-1111115033793

And some of our most promising authors –like this guy: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3565591.htm
I’m told his writings are in much demand in some of the western suburbs of Sydney. He wrote inspiring words like this: “small groups can cause havoc among Americans": "Pursuing Americans and Jews is not an impossible task. Killing them with a single shot, a stab or a pack of a popular mix or with an iron rod is not a difficult deed. Neither is burning their properties with a Molotov bottle. Small groups with small available means can cause horror to American and Jew alike."

And don’t think for one minute that only OZ has accrued such benefits no, no, no.
The leaders of the Madrid bombing were (wait for it) former refugees to Spain.
Many of those behind the innumerable plots in the UK derive from its humanitarian intake.
As were a godly number of those who sought to right the wrong done by the Danish cartoons.

All beneficial experiences for Australia… oui, oui, oui, monsieur

Alan Austin can plead as much as he wants. It aint going to happen, Australia will not open its doors as an easy route from the middle east to a better life.

There are a number of reasons why, and any fair dinkum journalist or scholar would point these out rather than look at the world with a magical view that somehow we can all just accept everyone and we can ignor any differences without our right to adopt some reasonable control over numbers.

As i have said before, biased left wingers are great to remind us of what we miss out on or neglect, but fortunately policy will be mostly driven by pragmatic MPs answerable to the electorate.

Unlike Alan, i think we do a pretty good job as a nation through a reasonable per capita refugee intake, which Alan ingores because it does not fit his biased argument (surprise, surprise); and our sosiety and economy which is now more open to foreign goods which have given poorer nations a better go.

This rubbish that Australia is going great can only come from someone who does not a have a clue about how many Australians are now struggling or a likley to do in the future in these times of high housing unaffordability and cutbacks to services.

@ Alan Austin,

<<Australia last year resettled fewer refugees than did Liberia, Kenya, Tunisia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and Israel.
Are you proud of that ..?>>

This is an example of the gross distortion that is often exercised by refugee advocates & their fellow travelers.They conflate temporary residency with “resettlement”.

Most of the countries Alan cites to shame us have not the slightest intention of ever granting their “refugees” full citizenship.
(And for that matter most of those “refugees” do not meet the UN conventions definition of refugee --often fleeing famine or seeking their fortune elsewhere rather than escaping persecution)

Take one of his shining examples Yemen.It’s true that many foreigners walk/boat/fly/swim to Yemen. But most are seeking to use it only as *transit point* to more affluent locations like Europe or Saudi Arabia --see the below article: ttp://www.irinnews.org/Report/94279/ETHIOPIA-Cautionary-migration-tales-are-no-deterrent

And most are not real refugees –as one comments:

“I have no future in Ethiopia,” he said. “I’ve seen Europe on TV, and it’s better.

“I have no future in Ethiopia,” he said. “I’ve seen Europe on TV, and it’s better.

“I have no future in Ethiopia,” he said. “I’ve seen Europe on TV, and it’s better.

You call for fairness Alan – but, how about a bit of FAIRdinkum HONESTY, eh?

Good morning all. Interesting discussion. Thank you.

To allay the fears several respondents here seem to have, perhaps it might be helpful to refer to just the one specific recent experience of asylum seekers – that of the Vietnamese in the 1970s.

Australia received more aslum seekers in leaky boats then than now as a proportion of population. The same objections were raised back then:

They are different from us, they won’t integrate.
Look at the mess they have made of their own country.
We don’t want their heathen religion here.
There will be communists, criminals and subversives among them.
They will bring their sectarian hatred and violence here.
Australia is full. We are already taking more than our fair share.
We haven’t got the space or resources to accommodate anyone else.
They are just jumping the migration queue and wanting to live in a rich country.
Too many Australians are doing it tough, etc. etc.

As things turned out, Vietnamese Australians have made good citizens overall, despite the inevitable small number of criminals and rogues. And now the West has decided to engage contructively with the Vietnamese Government instead of waging war, we are allies and trading partners, and they are at peace.

Australia now has a much healthier economic profile than those nations which refused to accept Vietnamese refugees back then, such as Japan. In fact, Australia now has the best economic profile of any country in the world.

My parents tell me it was almost exactly the same with those evil foreign Italians in the 1940s: with their strange language, history of war and bloodshed, hostile religion (to Protestantism), evil-smelling foods and dysfunctional political system at home. And there were even more of them arriving proportionally.

And don't get my grandparents started about those Irish!

So we really don’t have to be so pessimistic and fearful, do we?