We’re constantly told that we need to import nearly a million more people into Australia every few years “for the economy”. We’re also told that we desperately need “skilled migrants”.
So, why are we importing so many fruit pickers and Uber drivers? More to the point, how is it helping the economy to turn ourselves into the retirement village of the third world?
A recent government-commissioned review of the migration system confirmed the wait time for some parent visa applications has ballooned to 30 to 50 years.
Something the spruikers of mass migration rarely address is that, for every “skilled migrant”, we’re importing at least three generations of family members, as well.
Adelaide engineer Nitin Parwal moved to Australia 20 years ago as a skilled migrant but, after waiting more than five years for his parents’ visas to be assessed — and facing many more years’ wait — he is rethinking that decision and telling others to look elsewhere first.
“You’re not going to get professionals if you tell them ‘you come here and by the way, your parents are not allowed’,” he said.
So, what he’s saying is that Australian taxpayers should be funding his parents’ comfortable retirement in a first world country?
Anam Shahid moved to Australia a decade ago and is now a citizen living on the Gold Coast.
The skilled migrant’s parents still live in Pakistan and she said the wait time for considering permanent parent visas was ridiculous.
“Our parents, our only remaining family, they’re still in Pakistan and we would like to bring them here. Their entire family lives in Australia and it doesn’t make sense for them to continue to live in Pakistan,” she said.
Guess what? Generations of migrants moved to Australia decades ago, leaving all their families behind in the “old country”. The entitlement complex is strong.
Treasury estimates that each parent permanent migrant costs $393,000 […]
There were 27,692 new parent visa applications lodged between May 2022 and May this year, taking the backlog across the seven subclasses to 138,508 as at the end of May.
ABC Australia
In other words, a potential $11 billion extra cost to Australia just in one year. If the backlog alone were allowed to migrate, that would be another $54 billion burden on Australian taxpayers.
Which kind of puts a dent in that much-touted “economic boost from migration”.
We really are being taken for mugs.