Figures debunk the myths

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 10 July 2010

Emotion, not reason, is clearly driving the hysteria over the recent increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat. An essentially humanitarian issue has become hopelessly tangled in a broader debate about too-rapid population growth.

It is important to realise that asylum seekers arriving by boat constitute a tiny proportion of the growth in Australia's population.

This year, 3575 asylum seekers have boarded 76 boats to come to Australia,

At this rate, boat arrivals may set an annual record - surpassing that of 5516 people under the Howard government's watch in 2001. Even then, the number is dwarfed by the numbers who lawfully migrate every year, creating the pressure on infrastructure, housing and the environment that seems to so agitate some locals.