What do you think of asylum seekers and their plight?
By sharra1
@sharra1 (6340)
Australia
September 17, 2011 1:47am CST
One of the big issues in Australia’s political debates at the moment is the so called problem of boat people, or asylum seekers who are so desperate to reach a safe haven that they risk travelling in dangerous boats to reach our shores in the hope of having their claims for asylum processed.
This is only a problem for island nations after all since other countries have land borders that are much more easily crossed. It also ignores the far higher numbers of illegal immigrants who arrived here on visas and then simply stayed here instead of returning home.
In Australia people make a big issue of this as though all those desperate refugees are really armed attackers come to kill them and destroy their country. One person even suggested to me that someone should just blow the boats up, he did not appear to care that he was suggesting murdering men, women and children who just want a safe home.
I hardly think that the solution to asylum seekers is to murder them. That would be finishing the job that was started in their home countries and would make us worse than the despots they are running from. Surely the only real solution to this problem is to remove the reason for their flight. I wonder if this would ever be possible.
What do you think about asylum seekers and their need for a safe haven?
2 people like this
6 responses
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
17 Sep 11
At first I read that you thought that the answer is to murder asylum seekers! I was delighted as it is time that somebody wrote something inflammatory that isn't about Obama! But then I read it again. Frankly I think that in many underdeveloped countries the desire to emigrate in order to better themselves materially and economically means that individuals will concoct a desperate story to ensure that they can remain in their adopted country. Personally I think that the vast majority should be required to demonstrate a contribution to their new country within 3 years of arrival. Other than an initial subsistence grant of not more than 6 months duration asylum seekers should be refused all other benefits. Anybody not being economically viable within 3 years should then be shown the door back to wherever they came from. In a small overcrowded country like Britain with a reputation of favouring immigrants over indigenous population this is a very contentious subject and is probably in the top 5 political subjects that concern voters. The desire to be fair and understanding is appealing, but unfortunately there are so many instances of abuse of our hospitality that immigration has a very negative image now amongst the indigenous majority.
2 people like this
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
18 Sep 11
I can understand the concerns in Britain. I have a go at the Right for their greed and draconic fixes, but part of the problem that you have highlighted is that the pro-refugees lobby has been just as gung ho in the opposite direction.
Your prescription makes sense to me. I should point out, though, that the Australian experience has been that these migrants do succeed and contribute as sooon as they're given a chance, to the point that they out-perform the "natives" (I don't mean the indigenous), which in itself causes problems with jealousy. This success would make sense if you realise that they have had to go through a hell of a lot to get here, and so can be seen as highly motivated and capable types. As long as they don't try to impose their own culture on the host culture, as some militant Muslims do, then I have no problem with them being here. They enrich our culture in the long run, as the earlier Mediterranean immigration did.
But of course Australia is not an overcrowded country like Britian, and has immense primary resources to draw on, so no comparison. We do have issues in some pockets of Asian immigration where gangs (like triads) have become prevalent, but that is relatively isolated.
Lash
1 person likes this
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
17 Sep 11
We are having the same issue here with Hispanic immigrants. They are coming in droves and it has caused alot of tension due to our economical state right now. It has always been there but they are in jobs now that citizens see a need for. Jobs are very hard to find and the attention has been brought to the lower paying jobs that were once beneath people here.
There are real reasons why they migrate and one of them is corruption in their government that has caused the state of their country to be the way it is. So how does one fix that? Well...they would interfere and as an American I know all about that..LOL...but you do risk getting a bad name for such interferences. If things get much worse here...I might be on one of those boats coming over...watch for me and don't let them shoot me down. I'm just kidding..there are far worse situtations than what I am facing.
I do agree that focusing on the reasons behind their migration would be a better solution.
2 people like this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
18 Sep 11
The boat people are the most desperate and many of the ones we get are from Afghanistan. They are often people escaping the Taliban and nearly all of them are found to be genuine refugees rather than economic refugees. Our system does differentiate them. The problem seems to be that they are visible and that they are from a very different culture.
We have numerous illegal immigrants who arrive as students and stay to work and then take out citizenship. There is no fuss made about them as they are not so visible as a leaky boat with a few hundred people on board. They risk their lives for the chance to be processed in Australia and our politicians are keen to send them back to refugee camps or detention centres where they live in a form of prison while they wait for their claim to be processed. It is a terrible thing to do to people who have fled in fear of their lives and too many of them are suffering in these centres.
@KrauseHome (36447)
• United States
25 Jul 12
Personally this is an issue for all countries that make everything look better. People trying to find ways to get to these countries and find and make themselves a better life. The main thing is are they really willing to do something to make it better, or are they expecting everyone to give them a handout?
It would be wrong to quit allowing them a chance for a better life, or kill them. They need to find more ways instead of offering these people Free food, housing, etc. a way of life... Help set up ways for them to have jobs, and their own money to learn how to function where they are at instead of telling their sob stories and have everyone just feel Sorry for them.
Yes, they are people but where ever they are or come from, they really need to learn how to be a functioning part of the society that they are wanting to live in.
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
12 Oct 11
I feel for them as well. I think it is tragic that they are forced to flee their homes and then get a hard deal by the people who do not want refugees. The ones that risk the boat trip are usually people who feel they have no other option. They cling to the dream that they will get to Australia and finally get the asylum they are so desperate for.
Sadly they are more likey to end in a sort of prison and can wait a long time to have their cases heard. I really feel there should be a better way to deal with these people.
1 person likes this
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
17 Sep 11
This has been around for a while in Australian politics. Ten years ago the then conservative leader of the country won an election based on the lie that a boatload of refugess, when faced with an Australian naval vessel, threw a number of their children into the water. Shock! Horror!
Well yes, if it were true, but it quickly became quite clear that the issue was completely false, a fact shown to be known by the prime minister, despite which he and his party continued to push the lie into the election campaign.
Again and again we come back to this habit of the conservatives to use the exception AS the rule. There might, possibly, be a potential terrorist or two among the boat refugees, who might possibly make it through the immigration screening, but so what? The vast majority are just what they say they are, refugees from tyrranical regimes escaping for their lives and trying to find somewhere to call home.
Besides, Australia has far more illegal rmigrants from among absconding overseas students who flew in openly than it would get in a hundred years of boat people.
Lash
1 person likes this
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
17 Sep 11
Yes it does seem to be the case and since the conservatives seem to control so much of the wealth they have the money to fund any campaign they wish to and are able to fund massive demonstrations which then pretend they are the voice of the people.
It makes me wonder if we will ever manage to get a better and fairer world when so much power and money is working to ensure that we do not.
1 person likes this
