The Australian Foreign Minister is in town
primarily to look into ways of preventing the record number of boat people from
Sri Lanka attempting to reach Australia in 2012. The SL Govt. claims to have
also prevented 3,000 from leaving, by catching them before and while they were
on the high seas.
All ethnicities are involved, and it has
nothing to do with Education per se. Those who have good A levels are the most
frustrated in their employment search in Sri Lanka, and so arguably spending
money on Education will add to the their problem!! NOT REDUCE IT
People hear stories of Australia being the
Country where you can be laid back and earn a packet! So whoever you are
educated or not they try to emigrate, legally or illegally. The stories are
legendary of people who go there and within months are very comfortable. I do
not know how much is true, but it is believed. So parents sell everything to
pay people smugglers to take their children there hoping their offspring, usually
a son, will make it big and then send them a ticket too!!
For Sri Lankans seeing so many lotus eaters
in the land(Sri Lanka), who do little and have a good life, those who don’t
have that life, feel it is not achievable for them here and wish to go
somewhere where they feel that likelihood is greater.
You cannot stop this urge and education will
not stop it, only the opportunities for advancement in this land, by getting a job
with prospects is the only possibility. After all it is the most enterprising that
leave, not the most desperate!!! The people willing to risk their lives for a better
life are the ones who leave, and actually they are the ones that Australia will
benefit from as they are entrepreneurial and WILL contribute immensely to the Australian
Economy too.
Granted the one we lose who have a good education
and skills, go to Australia the legal way as legal emigrants, straight into jobs
in Australia as their skills are in demand. So the paltry US$40M does not begin
to touch the annual human resource value of these legal migrants, which I believe
is AID worth about US$500M a year to Australia from Sri Lanka. One must bear in
mind this perspective.
All Australia wants to do is CHOOSE who they
want. So, if they want to deter the boat people, they must WITHOUT exception, deport
them as soon as they arrive, whatever the international treaties say, and within
6 months this problem WILL sort itself out. So don’t add to your woes solve your
problem, its not ours.
9 comments:
the 'brain drain' if not the crux of sri lanka's problems is certainly close to it. It should be an urgent priority of the state, or other competant institution, to undertake a scientific, non-partisan study on the impact of migration of skilled Sri Lankans to Western countries, not only including losses and gains in GDP of both countries but also a breakdown of how migration of Sri Lankans, since hardly any Australians are migrating to Sri Lanka, affects economies such as prices of consumer goods, land, and business and jobs created. Why in the world can no Sri Lankan coming up in today's society ever dream of owning land in Colombo, for instance? Is it because it is such a productive place that attracts interest from buyers locally and around the world?
A non-partisan, scientific study like the one described above would set the record straight and be a foundation for any policy action that can be taken to cure our ills.
Interestingly, nobody in SL seems to be dealing with this issue. WHY???
Why no interest to take up the brain drain issue? because the powers that be ALL have relations that are happily living abroad, some of the powers actually being foreign citizens themselves!
In politics, national interest should supercede personal interests, with the appropriate rights of individuals protected in the process
Could you give us an update on what is happening in the North and East? I would assume much if not most of the Aussie dollars for education will be directed there rather than at the populations that are scoring highly on A Levels in the comfort of the non-war zones. And the aussies are donating that $40 million over 4 or 5 years, so it's only about $8 million per year.
I assume that the NE people should be contributing to a national re-supply of cheap labor, entreprenuership, and production of agricultural commodities that should be REDUCING the wages of non-skilled labor and also REDUCING the price of onions, potatoes, chilies, etc. in the markets. What's going on??
North and East is too small to make a dent to this equation. Any increase in food production has not resulted in permanent food price reductions. Maybe the wholesale mafia has seen to that.
Labor rate will not come down as long as the Middle East and the slow Boar to Australia are options.
assuming the wholesale mafia is not involved, even though they possibly are, perhaps food prices are not going down as a result of increased gross agricultural output because there has been a concurrent gross increase in demand as consumers, particularly those same NE peoples, have greater incomes and ability to purchase foodstuffs as well. We also know clearly about the voracious appetites, and expanding waistlines, of those in Colombo.
I reject the assumption that most of the new labor market entrants from the war zones are bound for foreign jobs, as otherwise the entire province would be empty which it is not. it's a shame, however, that thousands of people are paying thousands of dollars to brokers on false promises of getting them out. that is thousands of people, out of millions of available workers.
There is no assumption that the Northern people are destined for foreign jobs. In fact quite the contrary, they are the ones least able to get out, be it on a boat, not being able to pay people smugglers or have the skills to emigrate legally.
For that matter they are the least likely to go to the Middle East for short term employment either. They are far too traumatized and just wish to have a semblance of normalcy in their home areas. After all they can migrate to other areas in Sri Lanka where there are plenty of jobs, and they will not face discrimination, such as Colombo, where there are so many vacancies.
They prefer to go back to their home villages and try and seek to build a life there before venturing further afield. They have been corralled as nomads for far too long and wish for some normalcy.
so if we agree that there's many new low skilled labor market entrants, shouldn't low-skilled wages go down soon. if they are entrepreneurs now, many will enter the labor market at some point bringing wages down. good luck to them to try and afford things. fortunately at least land will be relatively plentiful for them in the short term.
Low skilled labor rates will NEVER go down. In fact unemployment amongst low skills is zero! It is the educated who are unemployed.
LAST ANON
We are importing labor from India, Bangladesh and China, because we don't have enough people willing to work with their hands, they all want to work with their brains, and there are not enough jobs in that sphere.
Where have you been?
I can give 100,000 jobs today for manual labor, no takers. Even the garment industry has 50,000 vacancies for Rs20,000 a month jobs but that is not enough for those who are searching.
Ironically an educated person will work for a lot less than a manual worker in an office job. I will have enough takers even graduates for Rs15,000 a month but they are not even worth that in an office.
Thanks to the education they have got. The Jobless educated are the brainless kind due to the type of degree or education that they have received.
The dynamic educated get jobs here or overseas, the remainder educated will not do manual work! Waiting instead for Govt. jobs further crippling the State Sector.
I don't get what you mean by land! With increase in GNP per capita, and a limited supply of Non Govt land in the Country (Govt owns 85% of the Land mass in Sri Lanka) of course land will go up in value, and people must learn to live in smaller plots. We don't like living in flats!
In reality we must change laws so people will rent out to landless, and build cheap rental accommodation.
One does not have to own a property, as that restricts one's flexibility in employment.
with regard to land, i was talking of people in the former warzones where thousands were killed and few new inhabitants moved over the past 30 years. those newly freed areas have abundant land at the moment that is not expensive but over time as people realize the cost savings of land in the NE vs the rest of the country and as people procreate in the post-war baby boom which is likely upon us that land will also increase in price.
those peoples in the former warzones need work and they will take garment jobs at Rs. 20,000 quickly hence there's great competition for low skilled worker and the wages should come down. you cannot tell me that after living in a war for 30 years that those people are not hardy enough to cut some underwear for a living.
at the same time schools should be mushrooming in those areas as you are correct in saying that they'd prefer to work with their brains. given the work ethic of those people, they'll likely do both -- low skilled labor during the day and study at night. in 20 years they'll be on top and their kids will have migrated abroad
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