Refugees an integral part of our societal makeup

A person who will step forward for the chance to achieve something better for themselves, even if it is arduous or dangerous, is going to be a person to be reckoned with if they get on safe ground.

AFTER World War II, the number of displaced persons across Europe was in the millions.

Today, the world is beyond that number, with 52 million refugees.

The Greens are calling on the Government to increase the number of refugees New Zealand regularly takes each year, from 750 to 1000.

We seem to go through phases of refugees in terms of ethnicity. When I was covering stories in Wellington and Porirua, displaced people from hill tribes in Thailand appeared to be the ethnicity of choice. Many of them had literally grown up in refugee camps near the border of Thailand. A couple of years later, and it seemed Colombia was trendy. I can recall some fireworks as the families settled in, particularly between assertive Colombian women and equally bolshy Pacific Islanders.

New Zealand is a country that needs immigration to survive and we have a long culture of opening our doors. It could be argued that refugees are not as valuable to a country as a trained immigrant arriving with skills and money. But what this fails to take into account is the human desire, in all of us, to reach out for something better, often to the point of complete foolhardiness. Refugees will put themselves and their families at enormous risk in leaky boats in an attempt for a better life.

A person who will step forward for the chance to achieve something better for themselves, even if it is arduous or dangerous, is going to be a person to be reckoned with if they get themselves on safe ground. That's an energy that can be invested into our country. In my experience, it is often their children who really thrive, going to schools and learning the language far quicker than their parents.

NZ First's response of agreeing with the increase, if we correspondingly decrease immigrants, is disappointingly predictable. And for the Prime Minister to say it would not make much difference is missing the point - and somewhat callous.

If we can do it, we should do it. It is all the difference in the world to a refugee.