In your quote it mentions a trickle of people - In Australia with its tiny population it is seen as the first stages of a potential flood.

Most Aussies have an ambivalent attitude to immigrants - the country was founded on deportation from UK & then immigration from almost everywhere.

The country attempts to absorb a large number each year but is fighting a torrent of queue jumpers. The fear amongst the average Aussie is that if the queue jumpers are allowed in, the country can expect to see a *massive* increase in migration from middle east & Afghanistan. This in turn is feared would lead to a collapse of the country as we know it.

Sydney in particular has absorbed a massive Asian population - many from Malaysia and Indonesia where there was civil strife that caused Chinese peoples to want to flee. In general this has gone pretty well but with two major exceptions that have caused a back-lash.

1st we took massive numbers from Vietnam, saddly we ended up with a lot of the criminal class who had a lot to fear from the communists but they imported their crime to Australia. Drugs and home invasions became their speciality. Our worst drug areas have been the Vietnamese suburbs - but they are being challenged by the 2nd problem peoples ...

2nd we took in large numbers of refugees from the fighting in Lebannon in the 1980s & 90s - sadly many of these people were nasty misfits who grew up at time when there was no school other than learning how to kill & fight. Previous generations of Lebanese have come to Australia and make up a substantial portion of good middleastern peoples who have integrated well. The newer arrivals unfortunately have become such a problem that they are blamed for the worst challenges to Australian law and order of any group, even the 1st above.

Driveby killings, drug dealing, gang wars, gang rapes (I know this sounds like a mantra but it has been a hot topic in the Australian press such that the state premier & state police chief spoke out on the problem, particulary gang rapes of Australian girls by Lebanese muslims). What added the worrying element is that this strata of Lebanese immigrants included a lot of Muslims vs previous waves of Christian Lebanese. There is an unplesant antipathy between these young newcomers, marginalised by war, and the locals which has created an ugly situation. Australia has not really had a problem like this before. The feeling amongst most Australians is we don't mind immigrants but we sure as hell don't want them to import their problems and hostilities, especially if they are religous or criminal problems.

So it is not at all surprising that there is a groundswell for the current Australian Prime Minister, who is taking a tough stand on illegal immigration. He really was written off as a hopeless case for winning any future election, now he is seen as a dead certainty.

Re Afghans, in the past these people have fitted in very well & are known as hard workers and to mind their own business. I think Iraqis have the same reputation so it is a bit sad that they get the brunt of hostility caused by an earlier wave of misfits who should have never been allowed into the country to screw up day to day living. If the 2nd group had been able to keep their 'noses clean' and not parade in the limelite of a vicious crimewave, there may not be quite the same level of backlash.


Cheers

Doug Marker