There have not yet been reports of any of these illegal immigrants being hauled behind the barbed wire of Port Hedland or Woomera. In the new century, the hordes will be not only yellow, but also black and brown, and occasionally white as the poor nations of eastern Europe and the Balkans join the Third World. Fifty-nine nationalities were aboard the six vessels that arrived in October. To this day, Australia's top two source countries of immigrants are Britain and New Zealand. Canada's are Hong Kong and India, while the US's are Mexico and nations of the former Soviet Union.
Refugees arriving by boat represent their worst nightmare.
Only recently have there been moves in the US to limit public education, health and welfare services to illegal immigrants. This began with the passing of Proposition 187 in California in 1994, only after vociferous opposition by many sections of the population. Subsequent court challenges have severely curbed the application of key parts of Proposition 187. Compare Australia's treatment of refugees with that of some impoverished countries. As global warming threatens to drown whole peoples, as 60 million by the end of this decade emigrate off lands too degraded to support them, and as those same millions are driven to the sprawling super-slums now fringing cities like Jakarta, Mexico City and Calcutta, we're fast approaching the precipice of a humanitarian crisis that will dwarf the Holocaust, the world wars and all the other essentially European tragedies that gave birth to the original entities of asylum and refugee.