Here are some things that ought to be in the news…
I was reading in the January 12th issue of The Economist magazine and ran across an article on Australia’s immigration problem.
I had assumed that the nationalist, nativist, racist norm throughout the world was to ban foreigners and close the borders everywhere now.
Not Australia, it seems. The country is offering inducements to immigrants who will live in the outback and restore population to little towns that are in danger of disappearing. They have run into a problem with lack of workers and farmers outside the big cities.
The town of Wagga Wagga has a new population of hundreds of Yazidis from Syria, who are delighted to find a place where not only are they safe from wartime annihilation, but now live in a place where housing, food and other material goods are all around them.
Another little town enticed hundreds of Philippinos to move there years ago, and now the town is booming, and they have had to build new schools and hire teachers for the new population.
To my surprise, I found there is a town in Australia named Walla Walla. I would have bet there was only one of those in the world, up in Washington state, where I went to college. They are offering inducements to people who live in Sydney to move out to the rural town and help the economy boom again.
The story reminded me of driving east of Bakersfield last year and seeing miles of orange trees with the ground under them covered with oranges that weren’t harvested because they can’t find enough workers anymore.
Maybe someday we will remember when immigrants were a considered a blessing to the country, and a good way to make the economy expand. Businesses knew that every new worker in town was a potential customer and went out of their way to make them feel welcome.
Maybe someday…
