Thanks for letting this thread run Martin.....the issue of Migration, illegal or otherwise is always close to the surface when we begin the horrendous process of bringing our LEGAL Wife to our native Country.
The degrading process we all must go through is in some measure a reflection of the paranoia all Governments go through when they have you at their mercy.
We have much the same issues in AUS as many other Countries, where we are being overwhelmed by Illegal Immigrants who are brought here by professional people smugglers based mainly in Indonesia.
I dont have any problem with somone wanting to Migrate to a better place for the future prosperity of his/her family....I did it myself.....as did millions of people before me when they came to Aus legally....and surely, USA was built on the skills and application of millions of migrants.
The Illegal Migration issue is NOT Political, it is social. Only problem is that the process has been hijacked by beaurocracy and the extreme left wing minority in our society. Politicians simply refuse to do anything substantial to stop it.
I always puzzle that these people coming here via smugglers claim to be economic and/or Political refugees......but they have somehow managed to buy plane tickets from their homeland, wait in Indonesia for weeks or months for an opportunity and paid up to $5000 each to a smuggler for their passage to Aus........and they claim poverty !!!! On the trip from Indonesia to the remote North West of Aus, they destroy any documents they have and are put into a detention Centre (more like a 4 star hotel really) and wait about 6 months for a temporary visa.
Contrast this with our wives/fiances who also pay big money in fees to apply for fiance/spouse visa, wait up to 12 months, must go through interviews and produce mountains of documents before they can come here. And it is our responsibility, on pain of rejection to prove to these Beaurocrats that our relationship is genuine !!!
I have talked seriously to some high power Lawyers about my Constitutional right to marry who I wish and why should I be prevented from bringing her here immediately, because I have accepted the responsibility for her, financially, she will not be a burden on our system. The answer is that I sure can marry whoever I want to, within certain parameters, Government cant prevent it...but the Migration Act overrides any rights I may have Constitutionally to marry and live with my wife...how's that for Democracy at work !!!
Sadly, any system always works toward Entropy...the change from an ordered to a disordered state. (thats why a dropped egg never reconstitutes itself, or a pack of cards thrown into the air will never land in the exact order they were !!!)
The vast majority of people who look at the "Western" way of life and want a slice of it are just another small step in the descent to disorder that any natural system exhibits.....if uncontrolled migration is encouraged and allowed, then the dilution of our way of life is guaranteed. Most of these people are wanting to get away from their own Country because their own Government has been too venal, lazy, corrupt , incompetant...whatever, to provide them with a basic living standard...so they want a slice of our pie...I wonder if they will work as hard as we did for centuries to get where we are now...I think not.
Forgive my rantings...this subject makes my blood boil !!!!
David