I think many of the Chinese were kicked out of OZ when it became apparent the wealth was being sent to families in China....and... they plssed off the miners by sorting through the tailings?
Migration was generally based on trades and skills. To find out newbs are arriving and gaining welfare to fund fifth columnist movements and airfares to a conflict in a foreign land is not in our best interest, I feel.
It is true that hard working Armenians, Afghans, Yugoslavs, rolled up their sleeves in the post federation years, but I not sure the present lot aren't being funnelled into public service jobs and the dole queue?
I'm not sure I agree that ones ethnicity is good indicator of repeating the good of ones predecessors either. But I do know that an indolent, non industrial society will probably see our welfare society as manna from heaven. Our roots are European/British ethic; empire building and all that industry that goes with it, rather than pitching tents, building mud brick huts, slavishly reading a fairytale book and basically doing zip all day with idle hands and the Devil more than happy to use those hands.
Social welfare is there for those Australians who need it, just most who do need it are often recent migrants and refugees, hence giving the impression that the new arrivals are here just to get on the welfare system, or welfare is only for them.
What you're saying about idle hands and such... I've heard from political scientists lecturing about how such ideas are propagated to demonise and then 'justifiably' cut such programmes. That and gov't taking on a bunch of debt... with high level of debt, a group of mainly ethnic or otherwise minority being seen as lazy, disloyal or just scamming the kindness of the hardworking masses, and everything goes.
Then steps in the big corporations and industrialists... they are obviously contributing more to society because one, they're rich so 'obviously' would never ever need gov't handouts (like those bailouts on Wall Street, or other bailout here in Australia - Holden etc.)... and being rich and never needing help, they in turn want to help rebuild (insert country) just the tax system are not 'competitive' - so tax cuts please; or that gov't enterprises are not efficient - so sell it off please...
So in cutting the measly social welfare pay that literally mean the difference between a poor family having enough food or not, the gov't save a few bucks. In cutting taxes on the rich and corporations, the gov't get to stay in power because the poor are too busy working a couple of jobs to really care for politics... and since there are more unskilled and desperate labour out there, corporations make more profits by exploiting that too.
The gov't also gain in other ways with a poor, hungry and desperate masses... there are fingers to point to others among them new arrivals, and in being too busy and too desperate to put food on the table they will have no time to question or protest or march down the streets against foreign wars and or pollution or industrial waste or cuts in social programmes for "those other migrants".
This is what has been happening in the US since the Vietnam War, and ramp up under Reagan. Capitalists do what they do best and exploit loopholes and people where they can; and gov't does likes it too because they not want any organised masses of idle hands marching on their capital demanding an end to war, or social equality and equal rights or environmental protections.
So you got a guy like Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, earning some $70million a year... whose bank and fellow bankers got bailed out by US taxpayers to the tune of $860 billions and whose gov't guarantee all debt and obligations to keep their firms afloat... you got a guy like that complaining that those on minimum wage are having it too good.
So a guy that earns some hundreds of thousand per hour, whose job and business would have gone bust without gov't welfare, telling us those earning $8 an hour or those on food stamp and welfare shouldn't be because it breeds dependence and is the root of social ills. And not too many people thought wtf.
Australia doesn't seem to be where the US is yet. But it will get here soon enough... a bit like netflix and broadband internet. You can see it in the repeal of the carbon tax and the mining tax... losing the gov't truck loads of revenues and now there's this dog and pony show about BHP and RIO dodging more tax through Singapore.
After the public is thoroughly convinced that gov't is also after the big boys, it'll be the turn of those welfare cheats, scholar wannabes and green environmentalists who dare put future generations survival ahead of profit. The big boys got money, politicians and good lawyers... the people got... got Murdoch's media so they'll be 'right.