50 Things You Want to Know About World Issues. . . But Were Too Afraid to Ask by Keith Suter

Author:Keith Suter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2005-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

Looming skills shortage

Australia needs more people for economic reasons. Australians haven’t been having enough babies to replenish the population and there’s a looming skill shortage. It’s already obvious in professions requiring more young adults, such as teachers, nurses and defence personnel. Despite what racist politicians may say, Australia will need to accept more people – or confront economic decline.

One indicator of potential economic growth is the arrival of people from overseas. Refugees and migrants are survivors; they’re inventive and want to make a better life. Both can help Australia’s economic growth – as indeed they did in the post-war period after 1945.

A 2005 edition of the magazine Refugees, published by the UN High Commission for Refugees, reported extensively on the remarkable story of Utica in upstate New York. The town used to be a jewel in the US’s industrial era, but became a case study of its industrial decline. The factories were closed down, the jobs moved elsewhere and the town’s population fell from 120,000 to 65,000 today.

Now, however, the town is a case study of how refugees can revive a region. Americans welcomed refugees from some of the worst places in the world, including Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Somalia and the former Soviet Union. About 10,000 people are refugees. The town’s Republican mayor, Tim Julian, has credited the town’s revival to the arrival of the refugees, describing how their energy, their thirst to make a better life, their survival skills and the skills acquired in their homelands have all played a part. Despite September 11 and the fears from the War on Terrorism, Mayor Julian looks forward to welcoming still more refugees.

Here is a lesson for Australia.

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