Knock, knock, who's there? Hopeful souls at every door

On a trip to Pakistan earlier this year, I was amazed at how sophisticated the knowledge of Western migration rules was among the locals. One postgraduate student regaled me with the minute details of the Canadian points system, which he felt was more relaxed than Australia's.

A taxi driver lamented the growing barriers to entering Britain, which was once seen as a relatively easy option. A considerable number asked about gaining entry by claiming political asylum. Australia was universally seen as highly desirable but difficult to enter. New Zealand was often seen as the gateway country.

It is a pattern that is likely to be repeated throughout Asia and an indication of how desperate many people are to reach the developed world. It's also an indication that as soon as there is a perception of a weak spot in the migration rules, you can bet knowledge of it spreads like wildfire.

The two biggest news stories relating to immigration this year relate to international students and asylum seekers.

The first appeared to be a story about education, but was in fact about migration. The education sector had become a back door to permanent residency. It wasn't the dream of becoming pastry chef or hairdresser that drove armies of students to fork out thousands of dollars to gleefully accepting private colleges, but the subtleties of our migration rules.

Many of those same colleges are now collapsing, leaving many students in the lurch. The passionate protests from disgruntled students in Sydney and Melbourne will place significant pressure on the government to intervene.

As the Indian student fiasco demonstrated, overseas students were the new refugees, living on the edges of Australian society under the weight of visa difficulties, imminent deportation and reduced access to social services.

They inhabited that ill-defined landscape of unbelonging.

The Oceanic Viking saga illustrates the cognitive dissonance stirred by asylum seekers. Most of us see ourselves as open and welcoming to migrants but the prospect of having porous borders stirs deep discomfort, like allowing strangers into our homes unchecked.

While the Sri Lankan refugees may be genuine, there can be little doubt the path of asylum is attractive to those without the appropriate skills or financial resources to obtain migration. It is naïve to think otherwise.

A migration agent working in the inner-west of Sydney and very experienced with Asian migrants, David Coote, says he recently stopped undertaking protection claims because they were impossible to verify. Furthermore, many of his clients based in Asia often inquired about asylum as a viable option despite them not being in any position of persecution. He says a growing number of his colleagues are avoiding any work to do with protection visas.

The legal net for the acceptance of refugees remains open to much creative lobbying. A couple from Bangladesh set a global precedent in 2003 by winning an appeal to stay in Australia. The couple were gay, and deemed a persecuted social group or class.

This ruling was later overturned and the Commonwealth, fearing a tide of pink refugees, has been fighting them ever since, another front on the war not to appear too soft on migration. The couple appeared for the fourth time last month before the Refugee Review Tribunal and were subjected to fierce questioning to prove their homosexuality.

If even modest predictions regarding climate change come to light, the debate over what constitutes an environmental refugee will also heat up, possibly further extending the category.

There is no doubt that bona fide refugees should be treated humanely according to international law.

Furthermore, while in the 1960s and 1970s many of the world's refugees were the product of anti-colonial struggles, in recent decades the scale and speed of refugee movements increased significantly due to the new forms of communal violence flaring up as the Cold War ended. This may have contributed to less sympathetic responses from Western countries.

A crucial determinant to whether they encounter sympathy or hostility is if their circumstances emotionally resonate with us. The lukewarm response after expatriate protests from the Sri Lankan community earlier this year suggest the conflict there is too far removed.

The emotional blackmail from the refugees suggesting they may drown themselves if blocked from landing in Australia can only worsen their public relations position.

Despite the difficulties, on the rung of access to residency, asylum and refugee status represents the path of least resistance for those seeking migration, especially for those unable to pay to study. The education agents spruiking dodgy courses are only slightly more respectable than people smugglers.

Global interconnectedness means the spotlight on migration rules around the world has never been more intense. Like international students, the mass of humanity upon our Asian doorstep will come knocking wherever there is a door. Opening it must be carefully managed.