Mixture of migrants and skills will add to harmony

THERE are many intangible benefits and costs of immigration as well as economic ones.

If immigration shows a bias towards migrants from Asia then it helps cement Australia’s position in the region.

Having many people in Australia who understand the language and culture of our nearest neighbours can have huge payoffs in areas of trade and diplomacy.

The costs in terms of lack of integration of new immigrants are highly exaggerated.

Most new migrants quickly gain the required level of formal English to perform their jobs if that level of skill had not already been attained before immigrating.

Although many migrants still prefer the religious and cultural norms of their parent country, still more actually choose to migrate to Australia because of the freedoms, the wide-open spaces, comparatively cheap housing and essential services and the relaxed and informal lifestyle.

Most of the long-term costs are due to broken dreams. These costs are not usually suffered by business owners because they can only benefit from access to the global labour market.

However, many workers, either new migrants or third generation citizens can suffer from under and unemployment.

Refugees from Sudan may find that they must first master formal English before they may even start a TAFE course in the building industry despite the fact that their physical size and musculature would make them excellent workers.

Third generation caucasians who drop out of university find they cannot handle the physical demands of the building industry and do not complete their trades.

Thirty-year-old plasterer’s dreams of a supervisory role as they age are dashed because their previous supervisors are now working alongside them. They in turn were replaced by a supervisor from India who has better experience for a particular project.

The simple rule of treating running a government like a business by only bringing in immigrants who have either capital or work skills and experience may not work in practice.

If the goal is a harmonious as well as prosperous society then it may be better to bring in migrants under many different categories such as family reunion.