Australia is at the center of an asylum row as its immigration authorities refuse permission for a Norwegian vessel, the Tampa, to land hundreds of Afghan refugees. These unfortunates were apparently rescued from a sinking vessel off the Indonesian coast.
The tragedies of asylum seekers are now everyday stories. They are using any means they can to get into wealthy countries and stake their illegal claim to a little bit of their prosperity. The British are demanding the closure of a Red Cross refuge near Calais from which every night, scores of would-be immigrants seek to sneak into Eurostar trains traveling through the Channel Tunnel or creep aboard British-bound lorries loading up at garages with cheaper French fuel. The German border police patrols turn back asylum seekers crossing the Polish border at virtually every hour of the day and night. In Spain the story is one of regular tragedy as illegal migrants try to sail or even swim across the Straits of Gibraltar. Almost every week the bodies of those who didn’t make the tantalizingly few miles are washed up on the Spanish coast.
The decision Australia has to make is not an easy one. However, it is well to remember that its experience has not proved that immigrants are a drag on the economy. In the last 30 years, after it quietly removed its hidden immigration barrier against anyone who was not a white Christian, it has welcomed a stream of Muslim Turks, Buddhist Vietnamese and Chinese and Shinto Japanese. These arrivals have reinvigorated the once-tired and isolated Australian economy and helped it thrive.
The United States also grew in economic power thanks to the stream of then penniless immigrants it once encouraged. Now immigration is easy only for the rich or the professionally qualified, the very people, it might be argued who should be staying and using their wealth and talents in their home countries.
Immigrants would not be piling into the West unless there was a market for their labor. As illegals, they are unable to take state benefits and they are often prey to criminals who exploit their perilous status. One Western European country only, Portugal, has been prepared to admit the key role illegal immigrants already play in its economy and wants to regularize their position. But it has gone further and said that it needs 22,000 more immigrants, to work mostly in its construction sector,
Throughout history, Europe has seen its wealth expanded and increased by industrious immigrants. In addition, in the days of empire, subject peoples contributed to European economies. The real problem, unadmitted by the West, is that so many of the would-be immigrants are from different races and different cultures. The First World talks a lot about the world coming together with globalized financial markets and the Internet. But they are not interested in a global labor market. Indeed, they are only interested in markets which they can dominate and control.
At the very least, that sounds a discordant note in the Paean of praise about the brave new global village that the First World has been singing for us.
