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.
Outright persecution is no longer the issue.
Unfortunately, Australian governments' increasing tendency to punish the victims pushes the bounds of international practice and precedent away from any such overhaul of asylum provisions and refugee status. At that meeting, Australia's recent attacks are likely to become an imperialist benchmark. As long as masses of people are displaced by global inequality, we should fight to allow them into the fortresses of privilege in the First World. And if there is insufficient room, it's only because these fortresses have concentrated the world's wealth into such few, tightly clenched fists. The only lasting solution is to break these fists wide open.