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The Forum > Article Comments > Sorry to rock the boat: an immigrant’s take on immigration > Comments

Sorry to rock the boat: an immigrant’s take on immigration : Comments

By Meg Mundell, published 10/11/2005

Meg Mundell asks who decides who will be accepted as an Australian citizen and who won't.

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For starters, Ms. Mundell’s “I came here by boat” is silly. She is obviously a legal immigrant. As a New Zealander, she receives special consideration – that’s why there are more Kiwis here than in New Zealand. She retains dual citizenship, so that’s strike one against her although, they way she criticises Australia, she might just need to return to New Zealand.

Ms. Mundell asks, ‘Why am I free to come here ….’. We could well ask, “Why did you want to come to such a terrible country?” And, ‘How bad to we need to be before she does “clear off”?’ We could start practising right away.

The fact that Ms. Mundell totally disregards, or isn’t aware of, the fact that Australia takes in more migrants and refugees per capita than any other country except Canada, clearly shows that the recent call for all immigrants sitting for and passing tests on Australia prior to gaining citizenship is well worth considering.

At the very least, Ms. Mundell should start mixing with people different from the ones she does now. So far, she doesn’t appear to have made any use of her desire to, “broaden her life”.

Perhaps she will never be able to shake of the same pre-conceived ideas that a woman I hired a car from in Wellington had when she told me that, ‘It is good to meet a “nice” Australian. I thought you were all like Roy and H.G. on TV’.
Posted by Leigh, Thursday, 10 November 2005 11:13:57 AM
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Be careful what you say about boat people settling this country Meg. That suggests a wide disparate group striking out for this big brown land. If you lock yourself into this you will rob yourself of the chance of assaulting us with the White Australia Policy. A diverse group can hardly come up with such a policy.

Meg, I saw an ad the other day which read: Woman wanted to share a flat. Must be prepared to live with a know-it-all and buy my books, tapes etc and attend my many lectures. Contact Ms Greer, London.

Maybe you could favour us by returning every few years and tell us how uncouth we are.
Posted by Sage, Thursday, 10 November 2005 12:04:57 PM
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Good one Meg...

it is such a shame that I know many Kiwi's who are not nearly as politically correct as you.

is'nt there a resurgence of nationalism in your homeland? to many asians in auckland or something? an m.p dedicated to dismantling political correctness?

the kiwi's could teach us a lesson or two: our pauline ended up in jail!

there are cultural difference between the two nations.

a maori aquaintance of mine was telling me about how kiwi's find aussies offensive, sarcastic, smartasses: but his attitude was get used to it or go home!
Posted by davo, Thursday, 10 November 2005 1:04:40 PM
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Well written, Meg. Keep rocking the boat and asking the hard questions. Many nth generation Australians like myself as well as newer immigrants will thank you for it. Don't be deterred by what might crawl out and attack you on these pages.
Posted by Bronwyn, Thursday, 10 November 2005 1:33:54 PM
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Leigh, your statement "that Australia takes in more migrants and refugees per capita than any other country except Canada" is confused and deliberately misleading. Meg clearly differentiated between migrants like herself who find it easy to enter Australia and refugees who don't. Producing a so-called fact that combines both categories without any differentiation between the two only clouds the debate.

You have attempted to put your own spin on the old and long discredited myth about Australia being second only to Canada in the number of refugees it takes. Even if you'd quoted it correctly, this belief is totally wrong. Australia and Canada are two of only eight countries whose immigration programs actually specify an annual quota of refugees and of those eight Australia does indeed come in second behind Canada.

The reality is however that over seventy countries accept refugees and asylum seekers and of these Australia is ranked only 32nd. We manage to host one refugee for every 1,580 Australian people, Britain hosts one for every 530 Brits and Tanzania hosts one refugee for evey 76 of its people. It is the third world countries who shoulder the burden of the world's refugee problem even though they are the least well-placed to do so.

Of the 12,000 refugees Australia does admit, a great percentage of these are from refugee camps in Africa and have no way of ever getting here. Our generosity on paper looks far better than the reality and is far less than the 20,000 we have easily accomodated in the past when crisis situations have arisen.

With over 21 million refugees world wide and Australia being a relatively wealthy and sparsely-populated country, our contribution as a responsible global player is paltry to say the least. Not only this, but it is achieved on the back of deliberate misinformation and clandestine cruelty. Most Australians don't know or want to know what is really going on under the guise of protecting their borders.
Posted by Bronwyn, Thursday, 10 November 2005 1:36:26 PM
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Bronnie the hard core refugee activist...the guilty westerner desperate to change colour.

France wanted to change colour, become more multicultural with their oh so sophisticated snobbery...look at them now. What a laugh! Oh the racial tensions in Britain, I want that too. Me tooo. I want to join in.

The me too, keep up with the Jones attitude towards increasing the refugee intake is a recipe for riots, ultra-nationalism and anarchy. Suburbs of Paris is now looking like Ramallah thanks to naive, wooly thinking refugee transplanting.

But hey, it is all about the white guilt factor ain't it.
Posted by davo, Thursday, 10 November 2005 2:15:02 PM
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