On 7/11/2012 12:34 PM, Peter Ross wrote:
German newspapers believe we are the worst in the Western world, in this 
regard. Whether FAZ (considered as the leading serious conservative 
paper), Sueddeutsche (moderate left-leaning) or tageszeitung(left), they 
all apalled by our refugee policies.

They are beating the drum of a bizarre agenda. When Germany has done as much for refugees as Australia, then they will (A) have earned the right to comment on Australia and (B) demand restrictions of their own.

http://www.unhcr.org/4c11f0be9.html (PDF page 14)

During 2009, a total of 112,400 refugees were admitted by 19 resettlement countries, including the
United States of America (79,900), Canada (12,500), Australia (11,100), Germany (2,100), Sweden
(1,900), and Norway (1,400). Overall, this was one quarter above the total for 2008 (88,800) and the
highest level since 1995 (134,100).

Note: per-capita Admissions needed to match Australia's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

Nation  Population Factor Compared  Actual
Aust    22,802,044   1.00   11,100  11,100
USA    314,705,000  13.80  153,180  79,900
Canada  34,967,800   1.53   16,983  12,500
Germany 81,857,000   3.59   39,849   2,100
Sweden   9,532,634   0.42    4,662   1,900
Norway   5,045,500   0.22    2,442   1,400

To outperform Australia, Actual needs to be greater than Compared.
Note: According to the UNHCR, Germany is one of the worst performers of the 19 nations, taking only about 5% as many refugees as Australia.

More info on refugee resettlement (if the SBS stats are correct).

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1294102/At-a-glance-Who-takes-the-most-asylum-claims

"Australia continued to perform creditably in refugee resettlement, with the 11,080 refugees resettled from other nations between 2005 and 2009 making up 9.9 per cent of the global total of 112,442."

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/population

"The population of Australia represents 0.33 percent of the world´s total population"

Those numbers suggest we are taking 30 times our "fair share".
Rather than castigating Australia, it would make more sense to challenge those other wealthy nations that take far fewer refugees per-capita.

Fair share is in quotes because the idea is subjective but the factor is so large as to make Australia's effective support of refugees unquestionable, even if some consider quality of service needs improvement.


Cheers,

Mike