After previously raising concern at the rapid immigration (population growth) into Sydney, NSW Labor leader Luke Foley has taken a bizarre turn, now lamenting the “white flight” from suburbs like Fairfield caused by a supposed influx of refugees. From The Daily Telegraph:
LABOR leader Luke Foley has put the issue of “white flight” in Western Sydney on the political agenda, warning “many Anglo families” are being forced to move out of struggling suburbs facing “slow decline”.
Mr Foley pointed to suburbs such as Fairfield, where governments had pushed huge intakes of refugees into regions without matching jobs and education resources…
“I’m particularly concerned about suburbs around Fairfield because they’re carrying just a huge burden when it comes to the refugee intake from Syria and Iraq,” he said.
“Something like three-quarters of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees are settling around Fairfield. It’s all right to come up with a grand gesture of we’ll take 10,000 Syrian or Iraqi refugees but where’s the practical assistance?”…
The Opposition Leader said there was a “middle ring” of suburbs in the west that needed more practical support in terms of jobs and education to match their booming migrant population. He pointed to Fairfield, Sefton, Yennora and Guildford.
“I’m saying, what about that middle ring of suburbs that have experienced, if anything, just a slow decline. In terms of employment, in terms of white flight — where many Anglo families have moved out?” Mr Foley said.
While the exodus of locals out of Sydney is a genuine concern (see next chart), pointing the gun at refugees is ridiculous.
As shown in the next chart, refugees are a tiny fraction of Australia’s overall migrant intake and, therefore, are also a tiny driver of the 85,000 net overseas migrants that flooded Sydney last year.
Rather than shooting down refugees, Foley should save his bullets for Australia’s non-humanitarian migrant intake, which will be the primary driver of Sydney’s projected 1.74 million increase in population over the next 20 years:
Focus on the numbers, Luke. That’s where the problem lies.
