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Bishops question migration policies
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| 1 August, 2010 |
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office are strongly questioning bipartisan policies on migration, labelling them as being “without foresight or hindsight.”
The Coalition announced that if elected, it would cut overseas migration from 300,000 to 170,000 a year.
The planned cuts will focus on family and student visa programs, while skilled migration would largely be quarantined.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the Coalition would keep skilled migration numbers up, but would crack down on “dubious educational and family-reunion applicants”.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced last week that she does not believe that a “Big Australia” with a projected population of about 36 million by 2050 is desirable either.
This policy is at odds with her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, who announced the “Big Australia” policy as asylum seekers arrived off our shores.
Ms Gillard maintains that the Labor Government has started reducing migration, and is already on the way to arriving at 145,000 net migration.
Bishop Joseph Grech, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference delegate for Migrants and Refugees, has expressed distress at both parties’ ignorance of the rich contributions of migrants to Australian society in their respective policy statements and questioned why both sides of politics are bowing down to pressure at migrants’ expense.
“Both parties are arguing that higher levels of migration will put strains on the country’s infrastructure,” he said.
“However, it is the job of the Government to look to sustainable infrastructure, regardless of migration levels”, he said.
“Australia is a country which, compared with most nations that welcome migrants, is
underpopulated, with a standard of life which would remain sustainable, despite higher levels of migration,” the bishop said.
“In our 2008 document Graced by Migration we demonstrated that Australia needs migration.
“The various migration movements have offset the impact of Australia’s declining birth rate; they have contributed to the nation’s economic well-being and they have added to our reputation as a unified nation specially committed and equipped to the creation of cultural and religious diversity.”
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference believes that there would be no economic gain for citizens of this country by cutting down the migration program.
But rather we would lose the valuable contribution that migration brings.
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