"Crazy" fictional solution to the global refugee crisis. Australia

[Mihalik]

Please bare with me. As a big sci-fi fan I occasionally have the tendency to nerd out. This is one of them.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the CIA and the US Department of Defense, today we are experiencing the greatest refugee and migratory crisis since World War 2, with over 60 million refugees world wide being displaced by war, climate change and extreme poverty, and it is expected to get worse mostly due to climate change.

There are already demographic pressures on both the US and the EU to which there is an increasing domestic hostility. There are very few catch all solutions that don't involve militarily occupying half the planet.

What about this one?

Again, this is mostly just a thought exercise.

The world could collectively expropriate Australia from the Australians and use its land to set up an area where refugees can be productively housed for flexible periods of times.

Create a internationally owned corporation (every country gets shares) which has the job of administering the infrastructure, environment, resources and new inhabitants of Australia.

Australia. Australia is remote and geographically isolated from the rest of the world. Which means populations moved to Australia can be kept on Australia.

The Australian people are to be given a choice of citizenship in any country on Earth, also a flat cash grant, a compensation for assets lost, and a shares in this new corporation created to run Australia.

Australia is to be the final destination of all refugees anywhere in the world. Refugees are not to be granted permanent residency or citizenship, but are to be granted work permits and temporary residency based on the situation in their home countries. Once their countries of origin would become stable enough to receive them back they would be returned unless they have managed to save up enough money to purchase permanent residency or have skills of value (doctors, teachers, engineers etc).

Refugees housed in Australia are to be guaranteed temporary residence and a minimum standard of living under the condition that if they have useful skills or are required to work in public or industrial jobs they would do so, if a job is assigned to them. If a "resident" is working, they are to receive a wage beyond the minimum standard of living guaranteed. Refugees who refuse to work when required are to be returned to their countries of origin regardless of the situation in their home countries.

This would turn the refugees into the workforce required to operate industries, resource extraction, infrastructure. The corporation running Australia would be required to be as self sustaining as possible.

Children are to be required to attend school and receive formal training. Contraceptives, birth control and family planning are to be strongly encouraged, while bearing more children is to be strongly discouraged.

Residents could during their stay apply for formal immigration to other countries through a legal process.

Residents must be permitted and helped to leave Australia and return to their country of origin at any time of their choosing.

Residents would have no voting rights or permanent residency rights unless they become shareholders, people who have earned enough money to actually become shareholders in Australia are to be offered pathways to immigrate to other countries of their choosing (by buying shares that are to be made available). Other way of obtaining permanent residence is by having a certain amount of years worked in Australia. If you've spent 20 years in Australia and you spent half or more of that working you should be granted a permanent guaranteed residency, as the chances of your country stabilizing or being suitable for return would effectively be slim.

Strict controls and international oversight is to be established to guarantee that the system does not become exploitative. It's goal wouldn't be to make a buck out of the residents, but to be as self sustaining as possible. Access to communications (like the internet) and free speech are to be guaranteed to residents.

Policing could be done by UN Peacekeepers, private contractors, and locally employed residents hired by the corporation running Australia.


So how does this completely unrealistic thought exercise sound to you?

(AGAIN, I don't actually want to expropriate Australia. Australia is very nice place, and it's doing just fine without us fucking with it. This is just some crazy shit that crossed my mind while tossing salad in the kitchen and thinking about the immigration crisis. Yes I was really tossing a salad.)

[Independent voter]

The world could collectively expropriate Australia from the Australians and use its land to set up an area where refugees can be productively housed for flexible periods of times.

I think we'd be in for a fight.

[Mihalik]

I think we'd be in for a fight.

23 million Australians vs World...

[Xeones]

Crazy is right. Forcibly displacing people for others displaced people... sounds totally logical.

[Primalthirst]

1. Good luck selling that here, you obviously haven't met our Prime Minister or the fear campaigns he peddles
2. Good luck to anyone trying to live in all our empty space, there's a reason no-one lives there already. The English think 32C is a heatwave, you're lucky if a summer day goes under 42C in the outback.

[Aurabolt]

Good luck to anyone trying to live in all our empty space, there's a reason no-one lives there already. The English think 32C is a heatwave, you're lucky if a summer day goes under 42C in the outback.

...This.

Like Russia and the countriess the Sahara Desert spans, most of Australia is uninhabitable. Antarctica is uninhabitable also but then again no one country can lay claim to it.

Isolated places to put put refugees...you're on the right track, I'll give you that. You got the region and the type of landmass correct. Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands. I doubt they'll miss a few hundred being used for refugees.

[PC2]

There is already a dumping ground for refugees, it's called Europe.

Infracted

[Shadowmelded]

There is already a dumping ground for refugees, it's called Europe.

I never knew “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." was sarcastic.

[Puupi]

We already have that. You might have heard of it - it's called United States of America.

[Primalthirst]

...This.

Like Russia and the countriess the Sahara Desert spans, most of Australia is uninhabitable. Antarctica is uninhabitable also but then again no one country can lay claim to it.

Isolated places to put put refugees...you're on the right track, I'll give you that. You got the region and the type of landmass correct. Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands. I doubt they'll miss a few hundred being used for refugees.

Indonesia would be a poor choice too, it's one of the most densely populated places in the planet.

The solution to refugees is a long process of bringing the whole planet kicking and screaming into the modern world. Most refugees are coming from areas that have experienced rapid, destabilising change over the last 50 years that took hundreds of destabilising years in the Western world. As a whole things are improving for most of the world, we just need to continue/improve that trend into the future.

I don't have a magic quick fix, but dumping a bunch of people somewhere isn't a solution, even in the short term.

[Shadowmelded]

Couldn't we just turn garbage island into an actual island? Two birds with one stone.

[PC2]

We already have that. You might have heard of it - it's called United States of America.

The statistics don't suggest that. According to wiki, America has a refugee population of around half of Germany and almost 10x less in terms of refugee per pop. And that's just one European country. We do receive a lot of Latin Americans, but that is categorically different.

[DEATHETERNAL]

I don't want to have to fight the Australian wildlife to try to take the country away from them. When it is Australian wildlife against the world, I fear for the world.

[Puupi]

The statistics don't suggest that. According to wiki, America has a refugee population of around half of Germany and almost 10x less in terms of refugee per pop. And that's just one European country. We do take a lot of Latin Americans, but that is not the same process.

I don't think the subject was what the situation is now.

The history of USA is exactly what was depicted above, the whole country is formed of refugees and immigrants who took the land from the indigenous people.

It worked before, so it should work as a solution in future, too!

[PC2]

The history of USA is exactly what was depicted above, the whole country is formed of refugees and immigrants who took the land from the indigenous people.

This thread is about refugees not New World expansion. You do understand people born here are not refugees or immigrants, they are American.

[Wildtree]

MMOC strips Australia from the Australians to solve the refugee crisis?

Well, at least no one can say this place lacks creativity... lol

[endersblade]

23 million Australians vs World...

You forget Australia's wildlife.

[Spectral]

I don't think that relocating refugees to some new failed state is likely to improve their lives much at all.

[Wildtree]

This thread is about refugees not New World expansion. You do understand people born here are not refugees or immigrants, they are American.

Indeed they are...... but their ancestors were either immigrants, refugees or slaves..
I would at least hope you know that.

Regarding refugees...
Proportionally to the population total... the US takes rather too few people in.
Refugees per 100k population, then the picture looks a little different for the US.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think that relocating refugees to some new failed state is likely to improve their lives much at all.

Let alone that they're all from different countries and might just get at each others throats like killing goes out of style..

[Spectral]

Let alone that they're all from different countries and might just get at each others throats like killing goes out of style..

Yeah, seems like a pretty safe bet, really. I'm guessing this would go about as well as Liberia, only with less national unity. People really need to start noticing that institutions and culture matter and that you can't just magic them into existence.