Immigration Policy

Australians are now living an average of a decade longer than we were just ten years ago, with women benefiting the most from this increase in life expectancy, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' report, Life Expectancy. While this is a remarkable achievement and something we often celebrate, it comes with a sobering reality: our standard of living has significantly declined. Although we may be living longer, many are living lives far poorer than they had envisioned - something the media rarely addresses openly.

If the race was to live longer at the cost of living better or happier than we won the race. I say "if", because no one consulted me specifically and gave me the options between choosing to live short and sweet or long and painful. I know what my answer is going to be. The chart below comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics but of course I modified it with the red line - declining standard of living. So please read it as "figurative" representation.

But majority obviously disagrees, and so, we live longer lives and blow out the "public charge" line of the federal budget because our needs as we get older increase exponentially but our ability to "service" them declines proportionately.

Nevertheless, we stick to our guns. There is a solution! Immigration! Pump 'em in!

It takes 4 years of university degree, 400 hours of free unpaid labor called (internship) and several more years of being severely underpaid doing grave yard shift to become an underpaid nurse in Australia. But it takes 30 days to pump a nurse into Australia from India. With a single stamp in foreign passport at the border security control point the officer casually wipes offs any measure of fair and equitable competition our children could have faced in entering an occupation they pursued for years.

A 30-day overseas "untested" product from India comes to take a better job that is paid higher leaving our children to "watch and learn" how to not jump through the hoops and enjoy the short cuts created by the "greed" of the "immigration" policy designed to shift the problem from one end to another.

Remember this policy was to support the ageing population. Ouch! But this policy also robs their grandchildren from having a fair go in life.

But the problem does end there. The same immigration policy goes on to rob the children of the same grandparents from their ability to enter the housing market or hold onto it. Here is the chart from The Guardian showing the unprecedented increase in the net migration movement in Australia. Net migration stands for the difference between people left and came to Australia. Yeah, not a lot of them left right?

So, where am I exactly headed with my pies and charts? To the same point of housing unaffordability. This is what it looks like to be flooded with immigrants and not being able to construct enough homes and the house prices go over roof leaving the native population (by native I mean those who migrated first, of course, Australia ultimately belong to the First Nations) unable to enter the market.

Whilst I appreciate the issues being so much more complex than that, but pumping more humans from overseas and commoditizing the process similar to shipping iron ore in millions of cubic meters... is that not what slavery is? Did they not do that in the middle ages - pump labor to live better and longer? Just slightly different format: they are not called slave cargo ships, they are called cruise ships.

Your thoughts on the matter?

Truly Yours,

Narghiza Ergashova