Light on our immigration policy
I was visiting members of the two electorates on the Central Coast helping Paul Green, our CDP Senate Candidate when the discussion on CDP policy turned to that of Muslim immigration. Someone asked me about how our 150,000 immigrants to Australia each year are selected, and I replied describing our policy of accepting refugees, members of families already here under the family reunion scheme, and those responding to our desired skills program.
We discussed some of the difficulties in absorbing our migrants and of the different aspirations both they and we have. I was absolutely delighted with our CDP members’ maturity in understanding the issues and their refusal to just follow populist and racist responses. I frequently come across viewpoints from people to want to ban all immigrants, and ban all Muslim immigrants in particular. Often they do not understand why we need immigrants.
So I ask them do they want to access Government health care, pensions, age benefits etc in the future and the reply is that of course they do. Then I ask them how many more children do they intend to have and they reply of course, they are too old to have any more children. Unless they have more children doubling our birth rate, we will not have enough younger people earning income and paying tax, to afford the benefits desired by our increasing older population. That is, unless we keep up our inflow of immigrants!
Every immigrant family from whatever country improves our economy. They must buy food, clothes, furniture, electricity and water, pay rent, purchase a car or pay for public transport and eventually buy a home. On every item of goods or services they are paying GST which goes back to the State Government to pay for all our public utilities. They need jobs and they take the most unwanted jobs where language skills are not important and where they are acceptable with their different customs and clothing. And with their jobs they have to pay tax to the Commonwealth Government to support our welfare services, health care, armed forces and the like. If they have joined their family here, there is a $20,000 bond on every individual so that if anyone gets sick, that is used for their healthcare.
The only way our Australian citizens can be certain of a supported future is if someone else comes here, and has more children on our behalf. One book that can help your understanding is Phillipe Legrain Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them (Little, Brown; London. 2006).
Legrain cogently argues that immigration benefits both the sending and receiving countries. He deals with all of the common objections, such as immigrants will take our jobs, that they will be a drain on the welfare system, that their countries of origin face a ‘brain drain’ and that they threaten our national identity.
He argues that immigration strengthens diversity making a country and its economy more resilient and better able to cope in a global market. Migrants are highly motivated and learn more skills, contributing to their country of origin financially through remittances and fresh thinking. Receiving countries have a broader market for services, fresh energy, and contacts with potential overseas markets. Migrants will do the jobs that locals are unable or unwilling to do.
Efforts must be made to make migrants feel welcome: ‘Xenophobic rhetoric aimed at potential immigrants certainly does not make existing ones feel at home; attacks on asylum seekers slide easily into hostility towards ethnic minorities…’ (p281). However, he also shows that ‘affirmative action’ favouring ethnic minorities, fractures societies along racial lines.
Supporters of Make Poverty History would achieve their aims more readily by promoting less-restricted immigration as this would produce far more revenue for poor countries than all of the aid currently provided by the rich governments. Any discussion on immigration produces more heat than light. I was thrilled to find on the Central Coast we have CDP members concerned to throw light on the issues rather than just generate heat.
REV.THE HON. DR GORDON MOYES, A.C., M.L.C..