sa2oz

I am with you on this
We and others migrated bringing some money, lots of skills and a will to work and integrate. As you say skills assesment medical and police checks. We did it to get away from Africa. People should go to a suburb in JHB South Africa which is completely controlled by the Sudanese (legal and illegaly there). South African blacks call it Sudan, near the Oriental Plaza and say it is the same as the areas controlled by Nigerians in South Africa, over run by crime drugs and prostitution

NedKelly

It won't be a problem for the poor African refugees. They can always go to the UK instead. They love immigrants in the UK and the UK takes more and more all the time. They will probably get a better deal there as well. They won't be encouraged to work, after all, with all the free handouts on offer what's the point?

Amazulu

Refugees in Australia do get a lot of handouts - as much, if not more than the UK. There are less of them here though.

Hutch

The French are tackling the problem in their own unique way ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7026846.stm

Amazulu

Rightly or wrongly I think the west is slowly turning against unquestioned mass immigration and acceptance of refugees. Too many bad things are happening.

orange&

I've never read so much bollocks in my life. Please don't try to introduce this apartheid crap to Australia.

ex_exile

Yep. Bollocx and bigotry dressed up as reasoned argument

Sa2oz, I'm not sure that you will ever find anywhere white enough... sorry I mean without any crime

orange&

Excellent comment ex-exile. Made me chuckle.......

orange&

I've had the pleasure of working with quite a few Nigerians over the last 5 years and I've learnt a huge amount. First, that I've never been made to feel so welcome, anywhere else in the world, and my work there is always a great pleasure. Second, that in the face of serious adversity, my colleagues manage to retain a great sense of humour and do not waste precious time feeling sorry for themselves. Third, that they will do whatever it takes in terms of hard work to help their extended families, and others within their communities... earning money to pay for school fees, medical care, putting others before themselves. I just don't get this racist crap. Looking at the specifics of being refugee... it's not a holiday... think about what refugees are leaving behind - war, insecurity, violence and persecution on a grand scale. Why try to make it any more difficult for them? What do you - does anyone -gain from these views?

JackTheLad

I don't think the government policy is racist crap. Its not like they are reverting to a white australia policy. They are simply changing the mix of Africa, Middle East and Asia.

Unless of course you think a white racist can hate Africans but like Arabs and Asians?

All immigration policies should be under constant review, and tweaked when required, without this hysterical response from the media.

If the government said they're reducing the Pom numbers for the rest of the year, does everyone get on their high horse? They vary the levels every year.

JTL

hevs

Errmm, I'm tipping a few people on here would look a bit taller.......

orange&

Yes, I actually do think it's racist to single out a continent and imply that integration is a problem, but not apply that argument to other potential migrants. In fact, I can't think of anything more racist, apart from actually banging people up.

JackTheLad

Thats true. I can see them checking the height of their horses now

But every year they change the requirements, sometimes to our benefit, sometimes not. We actually had really slow approval in 2004, and during that time they introduced the new super fast approvals, so people were expecting 3 month approvals whilst ours took a year.

I wasn't sitting in Glasgow thinking 'racist bastards'. I know it changes year by year, depending on their requirements, and the Oz society as a whole.

So they've decided to up the Middle East and Asian part and decrease the African part for a year... No biggie

JTL

orange&

The government here changes the skills mix from time to time in its migration programme. This argument is about preventing refugees - who are outside the skilled migration programme - from an entire continent settling here. It's a completely different issue.

orange&

Australia doesn't live up to its international obligations in relation to refugees. It's about time that it was called to account for this.