Gentlemen:

I've just been watching the news on television and we were told that
Turkey has received over 15,000 Syrian refugees in the past few days.
The Turkish Government is frantically building new refugee centres along the Syrian border with the expectation of thousands more.
According to available Australian statistics - since the boat people issue began - Australia has been receiving an average of 800 boat people a year.

Talking about "overpopulation" in 1950 the Australian population was 8.5 million and some people were in a panic that it will reach 12 million by the 1970s. Today the population is approx. 22 million and some people are still in a panic over a boat-load of refugees. Some things don't change apparently.

The predicted population by 2050 for Australia is expected to reach
34 million people. What we should be looking at is providing the infrastructure to deal with this increase because according to the experts - it's going to happen, whether some people like it or not.

When discussing migrants, especially non-British migrants, people are sometimes tempted to lump all newcomers together and treat them as one homogeneous species. Nothing is further from the truth. Australian immigrants vary a great deal in their ethnic backgrounds, religions, and educational levels. Their current social and educational needs are not homogeneous, either. People have settled in Australia for various reasons, economic, change of life-style, adventure, refugees, family reunions and so forth - and I imagine that this trend is going to continue.

At present, Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse societies in the world.

However, there are still many people who obviously are comfortable with a singular national identity and assimilationist policy. That's par for the course.

exi,
One minute you’re arguing that they have ALL been thoroughly checked and passed, and they have ALL been found to be genuine refugees (whom we are under the Refugee Convention thereby obligated to accept).

Then the next -- when the weight of evidence I presented above makes it clear that people are getting through who do not meet the Refugee Convention standards-- you retreat to: << How many I wonder, of previous arrivals to this country in the past could be classified as crims, refugees, or economic seekers>>

Whoa-up a bit!

So, are you now proposing that: even if they don’t satisfy the Refugee Convention criteria
(or, our own security checks) -- that that’s OK? We should accept them anyway because some of our ancestors were also shady characters?

You were appealing for SPECIAL ENTRY for these people on the basis that they were “REFUGEES” –remember?
That being the case, the motivations of past settlers are of no relevance: if you are using the Refugee Convention as a justification, the only measure that matters (to you) should be: are they genuine refugees?

Lexi,

<< I've just been watching the news …Turkey has received over 15,000 Syrian refugees in the past few days>>

Interesting indeed, I also heard the new .
Al Jazeera was reporting that Turkey was proposing to establish a special neutral zone along the border *to contain* (i.e. isolate) the refugees.
And you can be sure of one thing – their stay will be temporary : a TPV as it were!
Turkey with UN assistances may feed and shelter them for a time, but once the situation has quietened down it will be pushing them to return home ---unlike Australia where once a refugee is here they’re allowed to stray permanently--even if peace breaks out in their former homeland.

Lexi when your folks came here migrants were accommodated in a migrant hostel of some description. They were expected to get a job, & do for themselves.

They had to find housing & make their own way. That so many are now in comfortable retirement shows the sense of these policies. Those post war refugees, & migrants worked hard, & did well for them selves. In doing so they imposed very little cost on the tax payer.

For some crazy reason those coming today are not expected to do this. We supply public housing at a half a million dollars cost to the tax payer, & tens of thousands of dollars in resettlement grants.

We then find that over well 50% are still on welfare four years later, & you suggest that they are not ripping us off. I strongly resent these people getting better treatment than many of our own who have payed taxes for a lifetime.

Further to Hasbeen’s :

<<We then find that over well 50% are still on welfare four years later>>

Then under Lexi’s marvellous state sponsored multiculturalism some govt funded bureaucracy will do "a study that will finds” that this could only be due to disadvantage and deep, deep, deep, discrimination and the only way to overcome it –while all the time allowing even more such persons into the country – is to introduce special training programs and special jobs and special broadcasting services and special commissions to cater for and watch over such disadvantaged groups.

And some of this disadvantaged group will still not appreciate all ( or, perhaps any!) of this, for they will seek job opportunities overseas –though still maintaining their links with Centre Link.:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/somalia-jihad-drive-probed/story-e6frg6of-1111115033793

And then the special broadcasting service will run the same documentary 20,000 times whose theme is always a variation on: how horrible white’s are to everyone else. And the more naive seeing suich programs –and knowing no better —will fan-out (locust like) across cyberspace taking to forums and blogs with a zeal --that Osama would envy – to defend the disadvantaged from those horrible racist, shogunistic, redneck, neocons .

Dear SPQR,

Before you make sweeping generalisations about what I supposedly said - kindly re-read my posts and try to comprehend what I actually did say.

Dear Hasbeen,

Of course there are immigrants who abuse our system, just as there are people born here who abuse our system. The truth is that the majority of today's immigrants bring with them an infusion of the same values that our ancestors personified, the values Australia is so sorely lacking. They on the whole are people willing to work hard for long hours to make a better life for themselves and their families. Our children do not stand to be corrupted by their values, so much as their children stand to be coprrupted by ours. The scapegoating of today's immigrants makes a mockery when we collectively say no to compassion.

Compassion need not, indeed should not, be considered synonymous with profligate financial expenditure. It means a mental commitment to accept the possibility of options we had theretofore not considered.
Throwing money at a problem, it is true, is not always the answer.
But throwing understanding, compassion, always helps.

The history of the world proves that where the haves do not share with the have-nots, the have-nots always rise up. And when the have-nots in turn become the haves, they either share with the new have-nots or not. We who are the descendants of those who had not, yet managed to rise up to a new life for ourselves and our children, must now recognise our challenges and responsibilities. We must do onto others as we would have others do unto us.

Many of us have a tendency to moralize, to say endless things to other nations about how they should clean up their houses. Surely we must clean up ours. The days are long gone when we had the genuine moral authority from which to preach to others. Let us regain that ground, take a fearless moral inventory, do the work on ourselves that we still need to do. It will heal our hearts and free our souls.