Swimming against the tide: Australia’s new asylum-seeker package
Repost This Article
Photo courtesy Sydney Morning Herald
Though launched with much fanfare and media acclaim, Australia’s new raft of proposals embodied in the Houston package to handle the surge in asylum-seekers is simply treading water and will get the country nowhere. The flow of migrants to Western countries by both legal and illegal paths has increased steadily over the years. The large pool of migrants then encourages kinfolk and friends to migrate through information, good-luck tales and remittances. Thus one has a snowballing process of increased migration.
In brief, I assert that the main reason for the increased flow of illegal asylum-seekers is the impact of snowballing chain migration. It is an educated surmise on my part from anecdotal evidence from the Sri Lankan situation and my explorations of this topic in the recent past. Logically, this argument would apply to both the Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi migrant situations as well. Indeed, it is supported vividly by the opinions expressed in such a forthright manner today in The Australian by Ms Najeeba Wazefadost and Esmat Adine (25 yrs), both recent Hazara Afghan refugees who had secured entry earlier via Indonesia (Morton & Guest 2012).
Clearly, illegal migration is also promoted by other factors:[B] political dissatisfaction, inclusive of feelings of discrimination or persecution; [C] economic difficulties and a belief in the prospects of self-advancement abroad; [D] a combination of political and economic motives; [E] the fact that one is already a refugee in Africa, Pakistan, southern India, Malaysia or Indonesia and [F] the availability of people smuggling networks.
In temporal terms this combination of factors creates migration flows that are subject to cycles of increase or decrease. But I am confident in my assertion that it is the push-pull factor of inducements offered by previous migrants that is the biggest single factor in stimulating people from a wide range of classes in such countries as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan to seek self-advancement and/or refuge in such countries as Canada and Australia.
I do not see how the so-called “Nauru-PNG solution” will have an imposing deterrent effect on this process. Of the 1509 detained at Nauru, 68 per cent found a haven in Western countries with Australia taking 586 and New Zealand 360 and 33 elsewhere; while 32 percent or 482 persons “were returned to their country of origin.” Whether these proportions will deter would-be migrants is doubtful. I do not, however, advocate turning the boats back as the alternative course. That is neither feasible nor desirable.
My position is pragmatic. Since (1) Australia’s ratio of working people against non-working is on a sharp dip in any demographic graph projection for 2012-2040 and since (2) The Australian yesterday indicated that “800,000 workers” were wanted in five years, I affirm that more migrants should be accepted by any which route.
It is Australia’s egalitarian ideology combined with a bureaucratic control philosophy that generates an ideological hostility to “queue-jumping.” It is hardly surprising that a control-freak like Kevin Rudd was one of those most attached to a hardline programme against “boat people.” This is a form of elevated thought that amounts to tunnel-vision. Pragmatic thinking suggests more openness to those who beat the rational order by getting on boats [which, incidentally, are not as leaky as made out anyway].
Pragmatic analysis would also indicate that the Houston package unfurled yesterday will have little impact on the flow of boat people. The body of migrants in the fertile West will spawn fresh shoots from every which way.
*This essay was drafted on 14 August before the article by Amanda Hodge appeared in The Australian on 15th August. It has not been altered. Albeit without much hope of acceptance, I sent the essay to ABC Unleashed (online media) and to the opinions editor of The Australian on the same day. The readership I have in mind is Australian; but alternative outlets are better than none and Groundviews does reach international-wide.
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Sources
- Amanda Hodge, “Island of Tears and Fears,” The Australian, 15 August 2012 – see http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/island-of-tears-and-fears-says-hodge/.
- Rick Morton & Debbie Guest: ‘Stopping refugees at source the only answer,” The Australian, 14 August 2012, page 1
- Matthew Franklin “Labor accepts compromise on asylum-seekers,” The Australian, 14 August 2012, page 1.
- Michael Roberts,
- —-2009a “Tamil Migration within and beyond Sri Lanka,” 5 October 2009, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/tamil-migration-within-and-beyond-sri-lanka/
- —-2009b “Taken in by Tamil Tall Tales,” 4 Nov 2009, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/taken-in-by-tamil-tall-tales/story-e6frg6zo-1225794053578
- —-2009c “Adjutant Australia: Controlling Boat People,” 7 Nov 2009, http://groundviews.org/2009/11/07/adjutant-australia-controlling-boat-people/
- —-2009d “Crude reasoning,” 17 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2736651.htm
- —-2009e “Speaking from Ignorance: Australians on Sri Lanka & Its Boat People,” 4 December 2009, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/speaking-from-ignorance-australians-on-sri-lanka-its-boat-people/
- —-2009f “Alex’ Kuhendrarajah and the Australian media,” 20 January 2010, http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/southasiamasala/2010/01/20/%E2%80%98alex%E2%80%99-kuhendrarajah-and-the-australian-media/
- —-2010a “Boat People as Blanket Categories,” 19 April 2010, http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/southasiamasala/2010/04/19/boat-people-as-blanket-categories/8
- —-2010b “Aussies swallow Lies and Rajapaksas miss a Trick,” 31 Oct. 2010, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/aussies-swallow-lies-rajapakses-miss-a-trick/
- —-2010c “From “Leaky Wooden Boats” to the Imbecile Asian,” 27 December 2010 = http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/from-%E2%80%9Cleaky-wooden-boats%E2%80%9D-to-the-imbecile-asian-2/
- —-2010d “Missing the Boat: Australians at Sea on Asylum-Seekers,” 19 October 2011, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/missing-the-boat-australians-at-sea-on-asylum-seekers/
- —-2010e “Mahesh Pushpakumara: the saga of the marooned fisherman,” 20 November 2010, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/mahesh-pushpakumara-the-saga-of-the-marooned-fisherman/
- —- 2012 “Australian Gullibility: forgeries, lies and manipulation in the netherworld of in-migration,” 26 July 2012,http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/australian-gullibility-forgeries-lies-and-manipulation-in-the-netherworld-of-in-migration/
So-called illegal migrants are seeking a better price for their labour. I believe Michael Roberts migrated legally to Australia for similar reasons. The difference is the ‘illegal’ migrants are so-called merely because they’re unable to migrate through legal channels. If capital can move freely seeking cheap labour why cannot labour move freely seeking a better price?
I agree with you Cyril, but for me the crux of the problem is the concocted tales used by them to enter through the back door.
The ‘story’of ‘Alex’ Kuhendrarajah is one classic example. A thug deported from Canada claiming that he was persecuted in Sri Lanka.
People are constantly attempting to escape from Cuba to the USA and the cuban navy,army & airforce are engaged full time in preventing this – our armed forces do the same.
The reasons for these attempts maybe the same as those which cause such attempts to ‘escape’ from sri lanka – political & criminal repression,unemployment,poverty,social,racial and religious discrimination,injustice for which remedies are costly and/or
denied/prolonged.The 50,000 army deserters and thousands who pass out of universities with unmarketable ‘skills’ and school dropouts with no skills, too, are attempting/would like to,to ‘escape’.
The average sri lankan – except the very rich – likes to migrate.
Thousands of women from the poorest of the poor familes too
go for employment in the middle east knowing well that some of them will be tortured,raped & made pregnant,not paid full/all wages by the cruel employers,& that some may not return at all.
People are constantly in motion from one country to another,all over the world.
Let there be more & more migration.
Let the ‘body of migrants’ in the ‘fertile’ west assist/sponsor/induce
/financially support more of their kith & kin to ‘escape’ and join them.
The developed countries benefit from them as they have to work really hard to exist,after migration.If some rely on handouts,why not?
It is for the ‘host’ countries to decide.
Dr. Roberts fails to identify another stream of thought/feeling in Australia regarding the refugee issue. It is not that the Australians are not in favour of refugees coming there. It is a mater of equity when they know that there are 15 million refugees languishing in camps all over the third World, there should be attention given to providing Australia’s quota for those poor refugees in favour of those who can afford a plane ride to Indonesia and a boat ride to Christmas island (have a look how close Christmas island is to Indonesia).
The aim of Australian legislation is simply two fold;
1) To save lives
2) Deter attempting to arrive in Australia by boat (secondarily achieving the objective number 1)
What is required is faster screening and processing procedures which which would permit the genuine refugees (clearly a majority) to obtain entry to a nation which can afford them.
I personally believe that Australia should actively engage refugee camps throughout the World and accept such refugees (who are probably the most traumatised). It is not that I do not have sympathy for the majority of refugees who arrive by boat (many of them are probably political refugees).
With regard to the issue of importing labour, Australia has clear entry criteria based on skills. This favours in particular those from western nation but not exclusively. There is a clear and ongoing bias for migrants from the UK. However, this will not discourage people from Asia who are migrating in increasing numbers.
Many Sri Lankans are using legitimate means of migrating by using the Student Visas to obtain Australian qualifications (Some third rate Australian institutions have taken advantage of these students), skilled migration or business migration. The minority of economic refugees who attempt to queue jump and then obtain “pensions” at the expense of the Australian tax payer is frowned on by other migrants as well as Australian residents.
I think Michael is being a bit harsh on Kevin Rudd without producing good evidence for him being a “control freak” (please don’t produce mainstream media crap). The principal mistake made by Kevin Rudd was akin to that made by Gough Whitlam in the 1970′s. Whilst Gough attempted set Australia on a course of being truly independent (CIA could not have any of that! but Gough’s legacies including the most equitable health system in World still remain) of the UK/US, Kevin merely attempted a more modest task of attempting to make Australia independent of Mining Companies. Oh! I just realised – mining companies = rulers of US!!
I think it’s unbecoming of Michael to jump on the “Let’s Bash Kevin” band wagon.
If one cannot go to the university and become a doctor, get a forged certificate and practice as a doctor! And call it perfectly legal…