The classic move: blaming migrants

The Australian Labor Senator Kristina Keneally has come up with a classic way to help Australians, beat-up on immigrants. The Senator in an op-ed piece recently talked about the need to reset the migration system. Basically, reduce the number of migrants coming into the country.

A tribal, nationalistic, us against them, and Trump like commentary. Where if one gives that commentary as a politician, it may sound better than someone shouting the same thing at the local pub.

One can be fair to the Senator and argue she merely wants to help Australians. The problem of course, like every other time people cite migrants as the problem, it does not help.

The Senator wrote of the unemployed and underemployed Australians. Agreeing, with an economist she mentioned, that these people, if retrained, could fill jobs, if not for those pesky migrants.

For one, most of the unemployed are short-term unemployed. They will find a job without anyone needing to attack migrants.

The underemployed in say retail, may not want to retrain, especially in another industry.

The long-term unemployed have multiple barriers to employment that go beyond a lack of training, or migrants.

The Senator also noted that young Australians are particularly disadvantaged. The unemployment rate is higher for them, higher than the general rate.

Once again, the solution to this complex issue goes beyond blaming migrants.

It was quite telling that there was not a single mention, in the op-ed piece, of the benefits to temporary migrants themselves.

No mention of how their lives are improved almost overnight, by coming here.

The World Bank notes that migrants from poor countries, can earn on average 54 times more in a rich country than a poor one.