Immigration Problem?

This white man was bemused today to learn of a new wave of anti-illegal immigrant hysteria sweeping the nation in relation to some new boatloads of Afghani asylum-seekers detained off the northern coastline of Australia. Tragically one boat exploded and resulted in three deaths. Even more tragic is the oversight of this fact in lieu of an unbalanced emphasis on stopping future boatloads of illegal immigrants attempting to 'infiltrate' our great south land.

Statistically speaking, it IS a fact that Australia's 'problem' with illegal immigrants absolutely pales in comparison to other developed countries and their legitimate problems with this issue. I have heard anecdotally that there are roughly 11 million illegal Mexicans in the US. That's just Mexicans! And that's over half of Australia's entire population! In European countries such as the UK, Spain and France, illegal African migrants are flooding in en masse.

So let's not get too carried away with some so-called 'invasion' of illegal immigrants in Australia. Comparitively, our nation remains relatively unscathed when it comes to this world-wide issue. It almost makes this white man question what the true nature of the problem really is - is it illegal immigrants coming to our shores or is it the shady vestiges of our own narrow-mindedness when it comes to people different to ourselves? I'm not out-and-out calling it racism but my sense is that there is some xenophobia in there. I thought right-wing Hansonism was done with - is a return to "fortress Australia" on the cards again? Mmmm...what really is the true problem?