Speaker: What Diversity Dividend?
112 Responses
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I've had the disconcerting experience, on more than one occasion, of being asked to concur that, while I may be an immigrant, I'm not an immigrant in the same sense of somebody from Asia, and that we should let in a lot more of me and a lot fewer of them. If nothing else (and obviously there's a lot else) the idea that it should be more desirable and advantegous for New Zealand to establish connections with Italy as opposed to, say, China or India, seems laughable.
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This is the country that took in the Tampa refugees when Howard was attempting to milk political capital from the issue in "multicultural" Australia. As far as I'm concerned, that's our proud record. Regurgitating Pauline Hanson's talking points here, with suburban crackpot allusions to nonsense such as "destiny", isn't going "out on a limb". It's a one-way hiding to reactionary irrelevance.
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If nothing else (and obviously there's a lot else) the idea that it should be more desirable and advantegous for New Zealand to establish connections with Italy as opposed to, say, China or India, seems laughable.
But not any less. I'd hate to think we would choose immigrants based on their expected GDP growth.
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This is the country that took in the Tampa refugees when Howard was attempting to milk political capital from the issue in "multicultural" Australia.
Technically speaking, yes. But there's a bit of political creativity engaged in by Labour politicians, pleased to speak of "our proud humanitarian record".
New Zealand took them, but for every Tampa refugee we accepted, we excluded a person from our UNHCR quota. The number of refugees (excluding asylum seekers) we accepted that year was 850, the same as the year before and the year after.
For a number of reasons, refugees are usually a huge gain to NZ. It surprises me that the number is kept so low.
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Interesting point George, and one I missed at the time, as I was living in Australia. While there may be further nuances I'm unaware of, the Howard government had so much succeeded in demonising the Tampa refugees that Kim Beazley, the spineless Labor leader at the time, allowed himself to be bullied into supporting their mistreatment for fear of losing political capital.
I know from the first-hand reactions of most Australians at the time that NZ looked pretty good in acting as it did. There was some speculation that Howard might have discreetly stitched something up with Helen. As the Ahmed Zaoui episode showed, she's driven more by politics than principle on the issue of refugee rights. Anyway, taking in the Tampa refugees showed a certain generosity of spirit, and it's a move that we have no reason to regret.
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For a number of reasons, refugees are usually a huge gain to NZ. It surprises me that the number is kept so low.
After the well-publicised issues with some of the Somalis who arrived here, it's not really surprising that our politicians aren't so keen on refugees. The plane hijacking was just the latest incident. And given how knee-jerk kiwis can be to anything that's been beaten up by the media...
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You often here that they now feel strangers in their own land. I don't think we should repeat the mistakes of the Anglo-Canadians and the English and allow excessive immigration to wrest control of our destiny from ourselves.
You'd think people would have got over the Conquest by now.
(Seriously, (a) Anglo-Canadians still run Canada as much as they deserve to, and probably quite a bit more, and (b) if you said that in Britain I'd call you a racist tosser; it is possible you don't realise just how shocking that sentence sounds, but basically, it puts you on par with the BNP.)
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fascinating.
a regular commenter on this site spends a couple of hours and four comments on a Sunday lunchtime spewing out National Front/BNP-type drivel. makes Winston Peters look subtle.
and the reaction?
bugger all. apart from Keir, Joe, dc_red and a couple of others.
kudos to the ones who called this bullshit for what it is.
fascinating.(and to Tom S: fuck you, you anglophile, xenophobic, ignorant, white supremacist piece of shit)
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a regular commenter on this site spends a couple of hours and four comments on a Sunday lunchtime spewing out National Front/BNP-type drivel.
Come on now, it was more Richard Prebble than Kyle Chapman.
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Hey, I said it was 'utter twaddle' and 'reactionary bollocks' and I don't even get a shoutout? :)
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ok, and Danielle! kudos!
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gio, the use of the "RP" swear words is beyond the pale. let's keep things seemly, eh?
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Hey, I said it was 'utter twaddle' and 'reactionary bollocks' and I don't even get a shoutout? :)
You're just too polite Danielle. I have an excuse, I'm brown ;)
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Oh and Jackie had me out drinking ;) which was way more fun.
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Thank you Stephen W.
You took the words I really wanted to say right out of my mouth but I didn't want to start off on this site with that kind of language.
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3410,
and to Tom S: fuck you, you anglophile, xenophobic, ignorant, white supremacist piece of shit
I'm so disappointed that everyone seems cool with this abusive outburst. I thought we were better than that.
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I'm so disappointed that everyone seems cool with this abusive outburst. I thought we were better than that.
While I wouldn't phrase it quite like Stephen W, I'm right on with the sentiments. The only thing that exempts Tom S from deserving a therapeutic digital tarring & feathering is the crack-brained stupidity of his racist posts.
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better than that
LOL!
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This is the country that took in the Tampa refugees when Howard was attempting to milk political capital from the issue in "multicultural" Australia
I had a lift from an Auckland taxi driver who was one of the Tampa people... true to good old NZ recognition of overseas qualifications a high level financial/economic analyst in Afghanistan gets to drive a cab in Auckland
Maybe financial analysts don't have the same kudos in 2009 as they did in 2007, still it's the vibe of the thing
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I had a lift from an Auckland taxi driver who was one of the Tampa people... true to good old NZ recognition of overseas qualifications a high level financial/economic analyst in Afghanistan gets to drive a cab in Auckland
I guess that's better than being driven to self-mutilation in one of John Howard and Philip Ruddock's gulags in Woomera or Nauru, but hardly good enough. Great story Kim.
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The only thing that exempts Tom S from deserving a therapeutic digital tarring & feathering is the crack-brained stupidity of his racist posts.
I was erring earlier on the side of assuming Tom was not expressing his position clearly, given that it seemed a bit off tone from his other discussions here. Hence my question about what immigration arrangements he would like to see. Did I get an answer?
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I can't think of any British migrants I've met who don't scoff at "how we give it all away to the Maoris" and no longer feel at home in the UK.
You obviously haven't met me.
Also, I can't parse your double (triple?) negative. Do you mean that *all* the UK migrants you've met no longer feel at home in the UK, that *none* of said UK migrants feel at home there, or that you personally don't feel at home there?
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our precious social security system, something my parents and grandparents built with the sweat of their brows, would be unlikely to survive the strains of an encounter with mass migration
Complete and utter crap. New migrants (because they are generally younger and better skilled than average) lower the mean age of the population and increase the number of net contributors vs net beneficiaries.
Migration is one of the few ways open to us to get production to the levels needed to support peoples retirement. (One alternative would be to cede Tauranga).
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One alternative would be to cede Tauranga
Done! Next?
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I can't think of any British migrants I've met who don't scoff at "how we give it all away to the Maoris" and no longer feel at home in the UK.
And you've not met me and my family (and about a dozen of the immigrant people I work with...) either, obviously.
In fact, my view is that it is amazing that so many NZers (aren't stereotypes annoying??) have such a nasty, lazy, relaxed racist view *against* "Maoris" (though the "culture" gets trotted out when there's money to made or an overseas embassy to impress, so let's add hypocrisy to the list).
One thing that stands out to me from my first year in NZ: I mooted that I'd like to learn Maori---my co-workers were incredulous that I'd waste my time in that way.
So, *this* British immigrant sees things differently from what the quote implies: I despair at the racism in my new-found home and how people have taken so much away from "the Maoris", and I sometimes wonder if I can feel at home here.
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