It’s hard to know which new depths — incoherence, inaccuracy or outright bigotry — Immigration Minister Peter Dutton plumbed overnight when he claimed refugees were illiterate in both their own languages and in English and would both take jobs from Australians and “languish in unemployment queues”.
What had been a relatively positive Turnbull campaign in week one turned, yesterday, into an all-out assault on Labor’s perceived vulnerability on asylum seekers, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull going the full Abbott (give or take a dozen flags) by using the paramilitary agency Australian Border Force as a backdrop to say Labor couldn’t be trusted on border security.
Suitably encouraged, the eloquent Dutton went on a far-right pay-TV program to go further and sink the boot not merely into Labor but all refugees, even ones who arrive here at the invitation of the government via the purported queue. Can’t read, can’t count — but can somehow take the jobs of Australians (as many have observed over the years, if you’re so bad at your job someone who can’t even speak your language can do it better than you, you might want to think about your skill set).
Inevitably, that meant the media cycle would be dominated by the topic of refugees, exactly as the Coalition likes it, and the outrage generated by Dutton’s remarks merely serves that purpose. So, key performance indicator achieved. The only problem is if you have a Prime Minister who has explicitly differentiated himself from the predecessor he dislodged by promising a different, more intelligent approach to politics, which places him in a difficult position when his ministers so enthusiastically embrace the dumb bigotry that characterised that predecessor.
This created the unfortunate image this morning of the normally loquacious, nay voluble, Malcolm Turnbull refusing to take questions from national media at a Cairns campaign event, insisting he would speak to local journalists only. It wasn’t a good look, but a little prime ministerial dignity is a small price to pay for going hard on asylum seekers.
Funnily enough, though, the thing about refugees is that they’re exactly the kind of people that Turnbull’s innovative, agile Australia apparently wants. It’s certainly true that, regardless of the economic benefits of a higher population that all migrants, including refugees, bring — especially younger refugees — there’s a fiscal impact in settling them.
Refugees — because they’ve been forced to move rather than voluntarily decided to migrate; because they usually can’t access their assets in their home country; because they haven’t developed skills with the goal of being employable in a different culture; because they often suffer from mental health problems created by the circumstances that forced them to flee — require assistance when they resettle. They require assistance to learn English, to acquire skills, to adjust to living in a different culture and economy, to educate their children (children make up a higher proportion of refugees than other migrant categories).
Once they acquire jobs, it’s possible it may be 20 years before they pay enough income tax to bring the taxpayer out ahead in net terms. However, there’s little evidence from Europe that large numbers of refugees depress wages. Reported effects of low-skilled migrants on wages, The Economist found, were slight.
And refugees, according to a 2011 report, have lower workforce participation levels than Australian-born citizens (so, actually, they don’t compete for jobs as much as the rest of us do), but that improves over time and refugees who complete their education in Australia actually have higher workforce participation rates than Australian-born people — as do the children of refugees when they reach working age. And refugees highly value education; they and their children have much higher rates of tertiary education than Australian-born people.
Refugees also tend to be more entrepreneurial than the rest of us. Census data has shown higher proportions of owner/managers among refugee communities than Australian-born citizens — usually among longer-established communities, but also among more recent arrivals like the Somali community. This is despite refugees normally being unable to bring capital with them to start up businesses — although the second generation of refugee families seem to fall back to domestic levels of entrepreneurship, compared to their more business-minded parents.
And the traditional pattern of refugees settling in major cities near educational and health services and their own communities (and, not coincidentally, where’s the most economic opportunities) has also been breaking down (there’s a detailed discussion here), with more refugees moving to regional areas, often to take on work for which agricultural and other regional employers have trouble finding labour.
More educated than Australian-born citizens, more entrepreneurial, more willing to move around the country to pursue economic opportunities — refugees and their families sound like ideal members of Turnbull’s innovative Australia. Today, though, they’re ideal whipping boys for an election campaign that has suddenly turned into a very nasty place, under a Prime Minister who promised so much more.
Refugees need homes, schools, cars, clothing etc. This new demand might reduce the coming recession.
And if they are brave enough to risk death to get here, they might turn out to be superior to much of the existing population. No wonder Dutton does not want them.
Better we have an aging European population than have younger Middle Eastern refugees.
Not to mention that we only let in a tiny number compared to the hundreds of thousands of ”good” migrants.
So, in Victoria at least, that’s seen the right-wing media help orchestrate attacks on the homeless (with Rita Panahi now suggesting they actually just choose to be homeless out of laziness), a nervous questioner on Q&A, and now demonising refugees. Six more weeks of rabidly fuming at the most vulnerable and easily marginalised members of society. Who next?
If the refugees have money to pay people smugglers they are usually of a moderately well off social class or they have the support systems behind them to get them here. Many of them would and do make good immigrants. The trouble is there are so many displaced people and it is difficult to take huge numbers without altering the fabric of the established society. Sadly Australia’s welfare system appears to be a magnet and privileges given to refugees over the locals and the normal immigrants is fueling resentment and disinformation is magnifying this. We need to be more humane but we need to protect our own population. I wish the government would have an open arms refugee policy welcoming anyone who could get sponsorship and/or a job but have the provisio no welfare for five years like many immigrants . The government could keep the interest free loans presently available for refugees and not available to the general population. They should include those on Mannus and Naru in this.
“privileges given over to refugees over the locals and normal immigrants …….”
I’ve got to ask, what are these privileges? Free board and lodgings on Manus Island? You refer to ‘interest free loans’ available to refugees not available to the general population. Where did you hear that – The Alan Jones hour of power?
Noelene, don’t believe that rubbish, established immigrants and naturalised Australians get way more than refugees, including freedom, medicare, social security etc. What is medicare and social security if not interest free grants (even better than loans).
You read stupid Gillard’s speech where she said that the good migrants like her parents get angry over the privileges afforded refugees who have nothing when they arrive.
As for no welfare – here is a lesson dear. When refugees arrive in our territory we are by law supposed to treat them the same as the citizens. The current cost of one prisoner per year on Nauru is $2740 a day compared to $38 a day on the dole – that is 72days of dole per one day on Nauru.
And what interest free loans? Some get them, most don’t.
Turnbull and Dutton have put aside the dog whistle. They’re now marching down Main Street at the head of a brass band.
Which is exactly what Gillard and Roxon did in 2010, we have had 4 race baiting elections this century
Dutton is the unwanted gift that keeps on ‘giving’. After catching a glimpse of Greg Hunt (World’s Best Minister ever) at today’s Press Club Luncheon it raises the question of who is the biggest fool on the Coalition frontbench: Dutton or Hunt?
Admittedly, there are other contenders but these two beg the trophy.
As for refugees “languish(ing) in unemployment queues and on Medicare and the rest of it so there would be huge cost…” how would this compare with the exorbitant bill of keeping current refugees in detention and that farcical Coalition programme of relocation to Cambodia? Dutton himself clearly lacks numeracy skills.
Zut – gHunt is not a Fool like Dunuttin but a Knave. He knows that he talks crap and doesn’t care, utterly amoral.