Senator Bartlett,

As opposed to countries such as Finland with low population growth and little immigration, the US and Australia have shown similar patterns of economic development over the past thirty years, with growing social inequality, rising housing costs, overstretched infrastructure and public services, and stagnant real wages at the middle and bottom. Immigration/population growth is not the only factor here, but it is drawing a very long bow to claim that it is irrelevant. Bob Kinnaird has done several studies on the effects on the IT industry here of 457 visas, and has found much the same sorts of negative effects on workers that George Borjas found in the US. (Technically, 457 visa holders are not migrants, but the effects are the same.) Ingrid Linsley's 2005 study, Causes of Overeducation in the Australian Labour Market, found that nearly 30% of workers are overqualified for their jobs.

Horus, I agree with you about asylum shopping, which was forbidden by Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. However, our diplomats and politicians signed away our right to object to it in the 1990s. (See some of Marilyn Shepherd's posts on other threads.)

You refugee advocates need to consider why people might be hostile to you instead of trading insults with them and assigning your opponents the worst possible motives.

Folk on the Left like to pretend that there are plenty of resources to go around. In fact, it would take three Earths to give everyone a modest European standard of living (see the Redefining Progress website). Senator Bartlett was elected to represent the people of his state, not as member-at-large to a world parliament. Things aren't ducky here: horrific conditions in Aboriginal communities, widespread homelessness, two year waits for some elective surgery, no dental care for the poor, etc., etc. Look after your own people first, then talk about how to help foreigners, to the extent that we can.

The folks who go all dewy-eyed about multiculturalism and refugees are not usually those whose own jobs or neighborhoods face any threats. They also tend to be well paid, so can afford private health care and education if the public systems crumble.

It is far more efficient to help poor foreigners in their own country, with the bonus of not encouraging more population growth. The settlement costs of one family would give a whole village a school, clinic, or clean water supply.