Why are refugees rejected?

[Leaf]

I am trying to figure out why governments reject refugees.
Some people tell me that the majority of people in countries (like say Australia) want the government to reject refugees and so the government does - to stay popular.
Ok so the majority of people want a 'tough' line taken on refugees because of their racism, engendered by the corporate media. So why does the corporate media want people to reject the refugees? Is it just that racism benefits capitalists (eg divides workers and makes people more likely to accept poverty and war against foreigners) ?
It's just so incredibly sad to see the refugees and them being rejected for no good reason. I can't understand it. Thanks very much for any help.

[Comrade Gwydion]

I think it's a very easy platform for Populists to gain power from. Hate is easier then love. There is indeed the theory that racism divides the working class, and thus prevents them from forming a united fist. Although this theory is undoubtedly true, I don't believe it's a pre-planned motive of the 'united world capitalists' or something like that, I just think that it's a handy consequence. I also find it quite strange how the market-fundamentalists in our parliament are very much pró european union (because of the cheap labor from eastern european immigrants) but very anti-immigration (read: racist/nationalist) when it's about so-called 'non-western immigrants'.

Off-topic: Your friggin avatar! I use(d) it on another website, so immagine how shocked I was to see I had posted here myselve ;)

[Leaf]

I think it's a very easy platform for Populists to gain power from. Hate is easier then love. There is indeed the theory that racism divides the working class, and thus prevents them from forming a united fist. Although this theory is undoubtedly true, I don't believe it's a pre-planned motive of the 'united world capitalists' or something like that, I just think that it's a handy consequence. I also find it quite strange how the market-fundamentalists in our parliament are very much pró european union (because of the cheap labor from eastern european immigrants) but very anti-immigration (read: racist/nationalist) when it's about so-called 'non-western immigrants'.

Off-topic: Your friggin avatar! I use(d) it on another website, so immagine how shocked I was to see I had posted here myselve ;)


Mmm interesting. I think you're right that racism as a dividing tool is a pre planned motive.
my avatar? jeff buckley? :) sorry but what do you mean 'so immagine how shocked I was to see I had posted here myselve '.
thanks for your help

[Jimmie Higgins]

For the ruling class, scapegoating immigrants on the one hand while wanting and encouraging their labor is common in the US and I would assume it is the same in Australia.

In California, the establishment has aggressively cut social spending and taxes on corporations and industry over the last 30 years. In the same time our prison system has grown to be one of the top few largest in the world (following the US prison system). But if you read op-eds in newspapers or the old crank-pot readers that write letters to California newspapers, about a third of them blame everything from the budget crisis to loud music on (Latino) immigrants.

It is one of the oldest divide and conquer techniques of modern industrial capitalism. Even in the English enclosures, while the rich were pushing the poor off common lands, they were also enacting vagrancy laws and villifying the same people they just made homeless for being without jobs or shelter. It wouldn't shock me to learn that local church officials told older generations of ex-peasants that drunkenness and crime were all the fault of the latest generation of enclosed peasants (migrants).

[Lyev]

It's the same here in Britain. I know some people that have told me, quite vehemently, that they hate 'illegal immigrants' but find nothing wrong with 'normal ones'. I tried to explain to them that when someone is so desperate to gain access to another country they're willing to sneak in at night in the conditions of a horrible, claustrophobic lorry, with 10+ people in there at time, that they should be granted at least a little compassion. Sadly though, the government and media tells them that these illegal immigrants are breaking the laws of the country, so they should hated.

[Tatarin]

Racism isn't necessary for capitalism, but like previous posters said, it comes in hand. Throughout history we have found all kinds of discrimination. Women had their place. Non-whites were animals. The poor had themselves to blame, or lived bad in their previous life.

The same thing also applies to countries - "blood and soil", though in a very much lighter form, still applies to many countries today. Though when things as the EU develop, then it's all about partnership and cooperation. They're morphing the view of society to fit their goals, may it be racism, homeland, or belief.