Immigrant support hit by gangs

[Migration Help]

MICHELLE GRATTAN
January 23, 2010

TONY Abbott has warned that the rise of ethnic gangs and perceptions of ethnic street crime threaten public support for immigration, and said Australians should be especially concerned if Indians are victims of racially motivated crime.

The Opposition Leader also challenged ethnic leaders to show greater respect for Australian values, in a speech supporting population growth, immigration, and a strong border-protection policy.

''It would help to bolster public support for immigration and acceptance of social diversity if more minority leaders were as ready to show to mainstream Australians values the respect they demand for their own,'' he told an Australia Day function in Melbourne last night.

He said for all the misguided and sometimes cruel treatment of Aborigines, the ethnic typecasting and occasional snobbery that still existed, Australia had rarely seen domestic discrimination based on race or culture.

His remarks about violence against Indians echoed this week's concerns from former defence chief Peter Cosgrove, who said it was ''a major problem''.

Mr Abbott said the last thing any Australian would want would be to make recent immigrants feel unwelcome, and expressed concern at the possibility Indians had become the victims of racially motivated crime.

''This would be worse than a law enforcement problem. It would be an affront to our self-perception as a society where people are judged on their merits rather than on their skin colour,'' he said.

''Conversely, the rise of ethnic gangs and perception of ethnic street crime threaten the understanding that migration should be overwhelmingly a net benefit to Australia.''

He said that despite the success of immigration, it regularly featured on issues that concerned people. He identified three reasons: unauthorised boat arrivals had raised fears that Australian borders were again uncontrolled; some recent immigrants seemed resistant to Australian notions of equality; and concern about the natural and built environment coping with the pressure.

''There is, I suspect, an anxiety that the great prize of Australian citizenship is insufficiently appreciated and given away too lightly,'' he said.

He admitted many continued to be dismayed by what they saw as the harsh treatment of boat people, and that it was ''far from obvious how to strike a judicious balance''.

But ''a strong border protection border policy is perfectly consistent with a large and inclusive immigration policy.

''In fact, its probably essential if the public is to be convinced that Australia's policy is run by the Government rather than by people smugglers.''

He said Australians made few demands of its immigrants. ''There is no ideal of Australian-ness to which they are expected to conform. There is no expectation [they] will lose their affection for their country of birth.

''A corollary of our non-discriminatory immigration program is our requirement that Australians should treat other Australians with respect even when they disagree with them.''

The immigration rate should depend on the strength of the economy, the confidence of our society and readiness of potential migrants to make a commitment to their new country.

''My instinct is to extend to as many people as possible the freedom and benefits of life in Australia,'' Mr Abbott said. ''A larger population will bring that about provided that it's also a more productive one.''

But he warned against stifling debate on population policy in the way concerns about immigration sometimes had been. Population growth had ramifications for so many other policies, such as whether it was realistic to meet substantial emission reduction targets, that debate should not be shut down despite some people's fears it might be code for hostility to immigration.

SOURCE (http://www.theage.com.au/national/immigrant-support-hit-by-gangs-abbott-20100122-mqrg.html)

MH

[Migration Help]

STEPHEN JOHNSON
January 22, 2010

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says some recent migrants oppose equality and he suspects Australians are anxious that citizenship is given away too lightly.

Without mentioning specific ethnic and religious groups by name, Mr Abbott has used an Australia Day Council address in Melbourne to raise controversial immigration issues.

"Some recent immigrants seem resistant to Australian notions of equality," Mr Abbott told the audience on Friday.

"There is, I suspect, an anxiety that the great prize of Australian citizenship is insufficiently appreciated and given away too lightly."

He also suggested that unauthorised boat arrivals had raised fears that Australia's borders are again uncontrolled and said people were concerned about whether the environment could cope with population pressures.

Asylum seekers arriving by boat could not be compared to authorised visitors who overstayed their visas, he added.

"There is an important distinction between boat arrivals on the one hand and, on the other, people who arrive without putting themselves in peril, on a valid visa, and only subsequently become unauthorised overstayers."

The opposition leader also hinted that recent attacks on Indians could be discriminatory.

"We should be especially concerned at the possibility that ethnic Indians have become the victims of racially motived crime."

In the speech Mr Abbott evoked John Howard's 2001 re-election mantra, in which the then prime minister said: "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."

"John Howard's declaration about Australians controlling who comes to this country resonated because it struck most people as self-evidently and robustly true," the opposition leader said.

He attacked the Rudd government's border protection measures, saying that while people smugglers were the main villains, governments which allowed desperate people to think that getting on a boat might be a short cut to permanent residency would not be blameless.

While Mr Abbott conceded that Australia's problem with boat arrivals was smaller than in the United States or Europe, he raised concerns about terrorism if new arrivals were not controlled.

"Still, in a world where crime and terrorism are international in scope and where every developed country's social security system is under pressure, a policy of benign indifference to new arrivals would defy common sense," he said.

Mr Abbott argued Australia was a more tolerant nation, despite its history.

"For all the misguided and sometimes cruel treatment of Aborigines, the ethnic typecasting and occasional snobbery which still exists, Australia has rarely seen domestic discrimination based on race or culture," he said.

No mention was made of the White Australia policy, which was law from 1901 until 1973.

Immigration to Australia had been a success "almost unparalleled in history".

Mr Abbott added that supporters of tougher border protection measures needed to understand "it's no reflection on boat people that they want to come to Australia".

He appeared to support a growing population based on migration.

"The immigration rate should depend upon the strength of Australia's economy, the confidence of our society and the readiness of potential migrants to make a commitment to their new country," he said.

Australia did not have a "fixed carrying capacity".

"My instinct is to extend to as many people as possible the freedom and benefits of life in Australia," Mr Abbott said.

SOURCE (http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/some-migrants-resist-equality-abbott-20100122-mqib.html)

MH