Recently you may have received an email similar claiming that refugees living Australia are provided significantly more by the Australian Government than Aged Pensioners.
Apart from the email being ridiculously nationalistic and racist, the claims within it are completely false – the email is a hoax that initially appeared in the US and Canada and subsequently made it’s way to Australia. Both the Department of Immigration and the Refugee Council of Australia have issued Media releases refuting the claims made in the email (or it’s similar permutations). The releases can be found at the below links:
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/docs/releases/2010/100309%20Updated%20Response%20to%20email%20on%20Centrelink%20benefits.pdf
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/letters/letters09/le090902.htm
The issue of asylum seekers in Australia has been largely based on myth in the public discourse, with the 4 main myths as follows:
Myth 1. Asylum seekers / boat people are “illegal”
This is wrong – the United Nations Declaration, to which Australia is a signatory, states that every person has the right to seek asylum – it is not illegal. There are in fact about 50,000 illegal immigrants in Australia but the majority of these are backpackers who have overstayed their visa’s
Myth 2. Australia is being flooded by boat people
Again this is clearly wrong – 90% of asylum seekers come by plane with boats making up only 10% of an already small migration quota
Myth 3. Most boat people are not real refugees (rather just queue jumping scoundrels)
False – more than 90% of refugees are eventually deemed genuine and given asylum in Australia
Myth 4. Refugees are harming Australia’s economy
Again this is untrue – refugees make up only 3% of Australia’s total immigration quota, and equate to only 1% of Australia’s population growth
So hopefully this has cleared a few things up.
As an aside, my wife and I lived next door to a young Afghan refugee couple for a few years and, despite what the media would have you believe, they were some of the most generous, kind people I’ve met – maybe it’s time people actually started to see refugees as human beings rather than some abstract caricature portrayed on the 6 o’clock news.
If you receive this email, feel free to copy this text and reply all to set the facts straight and hopefully change some perceptions.
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