I’m an immigrant. If you subscribe to the common rhetoric in mainstream news, and coming out of the mouths of rightwing politicians, my very existence here in Australia is in direct opposition to the success of “ordinary” (meaning white) Australians.

Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech last week reinforced the widely held belief that Australia is being swarmed by immigrants, coming to take the jobs, housing and culture of white Australians who automatically are prescribed a right to be here, as if they didn’t arrive by boat or plane at some point, too.

I find this baffling, and not just because prejudice of this kind is illogical. The thing that actually confuses me is that people who hate immigration seem to think that it’s easy for anyone overseas to up sticks and come here to steal their “way of life”.

Having grown up watching relatives and friends try to get out of the developing countries my family........

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