is asylum hurting migration

I don't understand the Australian position on Refugees and the numbers involved.

Migration in to Australia has been (in my view) an enormous benefit to Australia as a nation.

Recalling that Australia was a British Colony and in some ways by its early formation (I mean after Federation) we were some sort of (stagnant?) pond of Englishmen, often desperate for something to relieve the boredom in life and get some excitement. I mean just look how many ran off to support Mother England in her time of need against the Boers and in WW1.

Despite the (loathsome) White Australia Policy, we got a small share of immigrants from European countries and a smaller section from Asia. Some may argue that the policy was needed to help consolidate us as a people before too many diverse influences disturbed things too much, particularly in light of our experience after the Gold Rush period.

Luckily for me, by the time I went to school (70's) I had Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese in my school and thought this was "normal". It wasn't until I met up with English immigrants to Australia later in my University time that I understood what racism was (and these guys still know their stuff). Got a whole new set of slang which you'd have to hang around with "skinheads" to get.

Visiting Tasmania in the mid 80's was a sample of what Australia could have been like if we didn't have the migration and broadening of views that we have in the mainland(just watch the Taswegians get shitty with this assertion). For example when I was in Tasmania in 1996 I asked our "hotel" where I could get some decent leb food as I was really in the mood for a good chicken yiros. I was given the disdainful answer of

"we don't have ethnic food here.

(wow ... insert banjo's here I thought at the time)

I spent some years in Brisbane and coming from a small town thought that the diversity of food and culture was outstanding.

The really wonderful thing about all the immigration into Australia is that it has (largely) gone so well, with little real friction and violence.

But I find that is starting to change ... and I really wonder if its because of us or because something has changed.

Perhaps its because we have immigration and asylum

You see the thing I'm thinking is that immigrants are perhaps different to Asylum seekers.

Immigrants come to Australia seeking a new life, a fresh start. I have the notion that they wanted to fit in, to become "Australian".

I'm not so sure this is the case with assylum seekers, who may come here just because its so much better than the hell they are escaping.

This brings me to another point. Our experience with sending our own people to hell (such as war in Korea or Vietnam) has returned to us traumatised men who could not fit back into the culture from which they (so few years before) had come.

Many of the assylum seekers who come here have been through stuff which would leave many Australians a jumbling wreck in need of counselling (if that even helped).

So my question is can we expect people who have come from a place so unlike here to fit in?

I think the answer is no, not without sincere assistance and support.

Are we providing that? Well the answer to that is pretty clearly no.

So (as many would ask) why are we accepting them?

Well Australia has a legal obligation to accept refugees as we are a signatory to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. You can read the
Convention and find out more information about it here.

Its important to remember that this convention was put forward in 1951 and has its roots in handling the horror of World War 2 where there were millions of displaced peoples as a result of the changes happening to borders (Russian occupations, Allied occupations, walls being built...)

I wonder if this is really applicable (and applicable to us) now?

I have a fear that our participation in this is resulting in us becoming hardened to all foreigners and that's not a good thing.

Our Nation has been enriched by people from all over the world. We have an insight into our neighbors which we could not have other wise had, we have a more diverse set of thoughts which can look into solving our problems in better ways ... the list is almost endless.

Are we being enriched by people who come and can exist only on welfare, who naturally then cluster into groups and raise children who feel isolated and distanced? People who have radically different ideas on what's normal and whats right and wrong.

Its not working in Belgium and its not working in France ...

I'd really like to encourage debate on this issue ... and perhaps its a hard one to tackle, but we must start talking about this issue.

Do you want to go back to "bangers and mash" and "God Save the Queen" ... I sure as shit don't

aboriginals and the modern world

In all the yelling about Aboriginal affairs in Australia I think the major point has been lost. To quote from my favorite movie (Brazi)

"we're all in this together"

One way or another the modern world was going to catchup to the Aboriginal people as people moved about the world. I know its unfashionablehionable to say this, but indeed the Aboriginal people came here from somewhere else at one point too.

Now I'm certainly not saying that the past has been great or that the Governement is yet on the right track with how to properly deal with the situation, but as some Aboriginal leaders (and some who are not leaders) are beginning to say aboriginals need to take responsiblity for them selves and stop destroying their own family's and their own communities. Drug abuse, and even the sexual abuse of their own children seems to be tearing at their core.

While one group argues about the stolen generation, another group (often mostly women) are trying to ferret their kids away from the communities to get better education and escape the dreadful cycle of abuse and poverty.

Yet despite pouring billions of dollars into the problem (for instance:

The Rudd Government and the states are pumping an additional $4.6 billion into indigenous communities over the next six years as part of the Closing the Gap program)

nothing seems to come of this or other monies. Perhaps there is some local corruption going on at some level in feeding this construction, but you know, they do need houses. A very valid suggestion (backed by at least one Aboriginal Leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu) is for them to build their own homes. This seems to engender some ownership of the homes and prevent them from destroying them.

For example:

Ms Limbiari, 57, said a refurbishment of her house would not solve the overcrowding problem.

"I have a two-bedroom house, but I need a bigger house with at least four bedrooms because there can be up to 40 people living here, when all my family turn up and just stay," she said. "I can't just kick them all out. I need the family and to see the children -- they make me happy. We need the government to build more houses in Tennant Creek."

which underscores another problem, Aboriginal culture (based around a different time) has totally different values. Some Aboriginal people complain about this, and rightly point to this as being the cause for the destruction of what is regularly done for them.

Everyone who knows much about welfare (and even my grandfather who doesn't would never accept handouts) knows that it can create a sub-culture based on welfare dependence.

But while Aboriginal community leaders spruke on about "economic empowerment" and claim they are "locked out of the economy" one has to simply look at where Tennant Creek is and ask just how could you make a living there?

Considering that in "white fella" communities such as Lismore unemployment is high for skilled school and university graduates because there is no economic activity there, just how can anyone with a grip on reality expect uneducated illiterate Aboriginals to fare well when they can't even speak English properly?

"There's a lack of knowledge that Aboriginal English is a separate dialect and also a lack of information about how to deal with children who have a hearing loss," she said.

Well folks, guess what, here in Europe the national cirricula is taught in the national language, and dialects are not specifically considered. Secondly what a lot of shit, Aboriginal English as a dialect may impress the linguistic academics but the Aboriginal people may have their own language (which should be addressed within the cirricula as in any bilingual nation) and when learning English it should be English not some gutter pidgin slang street l33t crap.

But reading that above article suggests something else interesting:

The tests fail to account for language or cultural differences and label the students as having low IQs, which enables the school to then claim disability funding for the students.

now ... that's starting to shape up as a similar concept to the construction above ... everyone wants to suck on the welfare nipple ..

So with Aboriginal kids doing badly in schools:

The gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students widens as students progress through school, with the proportion meeting national benchmarks in reading falling between Years 3 and 5 and those passing in numeracy falling between Years 3 and 5 and from Year 5 to Year 7.

its no wonder they simply can't get any job and fall into the problems of:

Senior Arnhem Land elder Bakamumu Marika said young people were turning to cannabis out of boredom. "People just get bored stiff. They've got no work to do, no training, no jobs,"

So before the international press pounds you brainless with meaningless mumbo-jumbo comparisons to quite different situations like:

Comparing the treatment of black Australians to apartheid South Africa, Mr Pilger said nothing had changed since Mr Rudd's historic apology in early 2008.

"Near the end of apartheid, black South Africans were being jailed at the rate of 851 per 100,000 of population," he said.

"Today, black Australians are being jailed at a national rate that is more than five times higher. "Western Australia jails Aboriginal men at eight times the apartheid figure," he said.

Come on John, there's some substantial differences between the two situations as well as the simply observable ones. We need to look carefully at what is happening in reality.

So before you form some opinion based on simply reading stuff, I encourage you to go out and deal with Aboriginals. My cousin taught Aboriginals at Mooree and I've done some university level research on the community issues (created by the division of Jervis Bay into ACT and NSW thus dividing a community). At the very least try expanding your reading before you make any decisions.

I applaud leaders like Noel Pearson, but I really have some questoins for Noel ... such as just were is the sustainablity of this?

Sure, be independent but if you can't afford to buy the stuff you need from the activities you have you either need to scale back your wants or change what you do ... basic economics.