Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings - updated 11/5/24*

Government "promise" to cut all Ukrainians' payments to 38.30/week. I smell an election

Guy in combats Looks like a lovely chap… from Dublin? No pal you're not and never will be.

Just on that point, if there were to be another crash, the irony should not escape us that we would end up relying on migration to allow many Irish people to make a good living abroad.

It's interesting that you say this. Firstly, as an aside, I agree that the integration of Ukrainians who end up staying in Ireland is not a source of huge concern for me. 10-20 years from now, they will be well-embedded, intermarried and indeed having kids here with Irish spouses and partners. Though we can never be complacent to this — I'd like to see more done to promote the Irish language, Gaelic games, Irish music etc — not so much out of misty eyed cultural preservation but because I think these things offer a unifying cultural band across all children being educated in the State and hopefully a stronger sense of integration.

But the other point here is that the massive influx of IPAs we experienced was directly as a result of the war in Ukraine (and the post Covid international travel bottleneck) otherwise, we really do not take in amounts of IPAs in the normal course that are as earth shattering as many would make out.

If social media is anything to go by there's a lot of anger towards Ukrainians too, people thinking they should just move to a different part of the country etc. I'd be outta there pronto if I thought the Russians would show up sooner or later.

I looked a few months back at asylum stats. Less than 10 Irish citizens tried to claim asylum in Australia in 2022 or 2023 and all claims were rejected.

I also know someone that overstayed their visa and was caught. They weren’t asked “pretty please, will you bring yourself to the airport when you're ready and leave?” No, they were arrested, locked up in a cell and when booked, they were brought to the plane. Same process happens in the states.

The Australians had abandoned the offshoring process. I think they might have re-introduced it in the last year or so under the Liberal gov.

When in operation it didn't seem to have any impact on the relatively small number of boats arriving.

While Operation Sovereign Borders remains controversial, both major parties in Australia - the right-wing Liberals and left-wing Labor - still support the policies behind it. They argue the country's success lies in the policy mix working together to deter asylum seekers.

But there are those who believe the offshore processing had little - if any - impact.

It was re-introduced by Labor in 2012 and the facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru quickly filled up.

"Two months in, the government was saying, 'We've already had more people arrive than we'll ever be able to accommodate offshore, and so we're going to start releasing some people into the community in Australia,'" says refugee law expert Madeline Gleeson.

And so the Labor government did a reset - emptying the centres and bringing migrants to Australia, before trying again. This time adding a promise that anyone seeking asylum in Australia by boat would never be settled here, even if they were found to be a refugee.

That didn't seem to slow the number of boats either, Ms Gleeson says.

And so when the Liberal-National coalition took over in late 2013, they pivoted to boat turnbacks - something which Labor had opposed - and the number of migrant boat arrivals dropped dramatically.

One boat arrived in 2014, down from 300 the year before, and no others have arrived since - though it is unknown how many boats have since been intercepted and returned before reaching Australian shores.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64898507

I might have a point? Is what I said a factual statement or not? Irish migrants abroad are economic migrants either needing to move abroad to find better work/pay or, in many cases, simply looking for a different experience of life and to have fun (the ultimate expression of the privilege we enjoy in the Western world when it comes to migration really).

Whether they do so legally or illegally, the base element that connects all migrants is there — they are all people going abroad to find something they perceive to be better for themselves. Whether it's survival, climbing out of poverty, or wanting to surf on Bondi Beach after clocking off for the week from a corporate law firm in Sydney — the base connecting element remains. They also all take up space, resources and housing, regardless of whatever contributions they make.

For some reason, the mere mention of this does seem to really grind people. It's almost like a knee-jerk reaction of "he's saying the Irish migrate too so it's OK for other migrants to come here in uncontrolled numbers". But the comparison is there.

there was a lot of moaning on australian reddit when an article was posted there from an irish paper saying 20-odd thousand irish people were moving to australia this year. now vast majority would be temporary working holiday visa people, i did it too, but they have a massive housing crisis in australia too and you can understand why they'd see this as adding extra pressure. it's so much easier for people to bounce around the world these days than it used to be.

i'm not saying this means everyone in the world should be able to move to ireland, but our economic/sun-seeking migrants are subjected to some of the same rhetoric too.

What we gave to the Ukrainians was beyond mental. We tried to outbid the rest of Europe of hostest with the mostest. But the money spent on bringing their pets here for me was simply crazy.

Indeed, given Ireland's strategic position for the illegal drugs trade and some of the nationalities establishing themselves here, you don't need a crystal ball to foresee what's coming in the years ahead as they each vie for control.