Karnal wrote on May 8^th, 2016 at 7:43pm:


Perhaps you don't understand the question.

Muslim Immigration: Any upside for Australia?

The reply did not fit the question. 

The question was: Muslim immigration: Any upside for Australia?

Perhaps a better more easily answered question would be.

Would we be better off without Muslim immigration?

Simply put........YES

polite_gandalf wrote on May 8^th, 2016 at 10:08am:


Gandalf recently argued that "Arabia is for Arabs" is not a racist stance, coming from someone calling for Jews to leave Israel. Yet he has also argued that all Islamophobia is based on racism, and frequently makes baseless accusations of racism.

Karnal wrote on May 8^th, 2016 at 7:43pm:


He acknowledged exceptions to the trend. I don't think a rural abattoir full of Muslim meatworkers is evidence that Muslim doctors are in fact helping to alleviate the rural GP shortage.

One doctor emigrating to Australia to treat sick Australians is an upside. We want skilled, educated and hard-working professionals here. If you don't, you're not out to benefit the country. Mean-spirited racists are bad for business. Banning the tinted races is the worst possible thing we could do. Australia relies on foreign trade and finance - more than any other country in our region. Apartheid states are not popular these days.

People's religion is neither here nor there. We don't discriminate on the basis of religion. This is central to who we are. It's part of our Western tradition, it's in the constitution, it's in everybody's constitution. Banning Muselmen, even if this would be constitutionally possible, would provide no end of enemies, including the 250 million of them next door.

The upside of multiculturalism is the connection to foreign trade networks. Chinese, Indian and Arab business people have global networks that benefit and employ Australians. We now shop in Chinese, Indian and Arab shops. We sell our products to Chinese, Indian and Arabs overseas. This ranges from small businesses to the Australian Wheat Board, and all these deals require friends.

Immigration keeps the Australian economy going. It's our main strength. Our proximity and our relationship with Asia is the source of future growth in Australia. The old racist, protectionist, insular economy is dead. We couldn't possibly go back there, even if we wanted to. The world no longer works through fixed currencies, interest rates and tariffs. Australia has never been self-reliant, we've always relied on foreign trade and capital.

I have no preference for Muslim immigration over Jewish or Hindu immigration, but barring any religion would be the death knell of our economy AND our Western Enlightenment values.

I'm curious, FD. What do you think?

Karnal wrote on May 9^th, 2016 at 11:17am:


You're not listening karnal:

"The Australian Medical Association and other health lobbies argue there's an oversupply"

... wrote on May 9^th, 2016 at 11:29am:


You didn't read your own link, did you?

Quote:

If there's such an oversupply, how come nearly every GP I see is foreign born? There's either a lot of Aussie doctors being put out of work for no reason, or we really do need to import all those foreign doctors.

So K, what do you think is happening with those graduates? Are they quitting before they become practitioners? Is that why the AMA is calling for funding to be redirected to post-grad training?