Hmmm, this debate sounds eerily familiar. In the U.S., the issue is complicated by the fact that there are 12 million immigrants here illegally. According to the most impartial reports I've read (those are hard to find!), they provide a net benefit to the economy, but they're breaking the law in doing so. Deporting them all is literally impossible, if it were even desirable. Overlying every thought, apparently, is the 9/11-heightened xenophobic paranoia that seems to find its way into every facet of our lives now.
Anyway, sorry for pulling the pin on this particular sh!t grenade. The concensus opion I'm hearing here is that I'm pretty much SOL. Too bad. Despite the apparently similar internal political differences in Oz, I can't imagine your country embarassing itself on a global scale and going directly against its founding principles, as mine has done in the last four years. I'll still come to visit! Take that as a threat or a promise at your discretion!
