Tim Blair

Murdoch and immigration. Certainly a good match. I was very pleased when that prick emigrated to America.

Murdoch is a hero of our times. He's the best of the best that this country has to offer, and even though he's officially an American he's never been more Australian than he is here. He is everything that Australia could be: wise, firm, fair and successful. He's everything sad losers want to tear down. A bloody hero worth remembering.

Superleague ?
There's still room on the boat to Delaware Hanyu.

Murdoch is the prototypical citizen of the Anglosphere, with interests in the US, Britain, Australia and (no doubt) Canada. His newspapers are standing between Britain and the Euro, and Fox News put some balance back in the US media. So it's good to hear him extolling immigrants (well three of them, anyway).

Well his UK newspapers don't think much of immigrants here. And, of course, he's immune to taxation.

Oddly, when a lot of fuss was made about British Guardian readers "interfering" in theUS election, there were no DoS attacks over the American Murdoch trying to control the entire UK political agenda.

As for "He is everything that Australia could be: wise, firm, fair and successful" he also trades-in wives. That's fair. And wise.

Simon: I'm sure the KKK is writing to you this very momemt to sign you up.

Dave Heasman: Taking whining and turning it into a science. Good for you.

Hmmm.

Actually immigration has never been an issue. It is *illegal* immigration that is the problem and quite a problem it is. Supporting illegal aliens cost an enormous amount of money. There are many hospitals that have closed their emergency rooms, or themselves entirely, due to uncompensated treatment costs of illegal aliens. Then there's the public welfare, housing assistance, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, disability and social security. Which all cost an enormous amount of money.

That doesn't even cover education costs which are borne almost entirely by local communities. In my home state of New Jersey, USA, nearly every single town is having to rebuild, upgrade or build new, schools. While the growing population might be explained in part due to relocating workers most are due to illegal aliens. At an average cost of $13.5k per student/per year this money adds up very very quickly.

And that doesn't even begin to account for the fact that 1/3rd of all federal prisoners are illegal aliens.

I read somewhere, lost the link sorry, that illegal aliens cost each and every American citizen $1,400 per person/per year irrespective of the gender or age of the citizen. Frankly I believe it.

As an immigrant myself, from South Korea as a child, I'm not opposed to immigration. By all means increase the amount of legal immigration to whatever levels necessary to ensure a growing population. But I am utterly opposed to illegal immigration in every form for many reasons.

Rupert Murdoch's argument is weak- 'Because selective anecdotes can give examples of immigrants who are beneficial to their host nation immigration is good'. It is like listing a bunch of immigrant musderers and thieves as an argument against immigrants.

Still, anyone who can send the left into convulsions of rage like Murdoch can is clearly not too bad.

So the next time you hear people whinging about what a "drain" on America our immigrants are

They're certainly a drain - they're draining the swamp over there!

All immigrants are not created equal.

If the system actually chose those who just want a better life, rather than arbitrarily let people in, immigration would have much more popular support.

One of the reasons for Americas current success is its choice of immigrants. Europe on the other hand, prefers pimps to Phds, Terrorists to Tycoons.

In the USA, immigrants create world beating companies, in Europe they stab film directors on the street.

[Ignorant, bigoted comment remove to spare commenter's friends and relatives the shame. The Management.]

Its so refreshing to see such a positive spin on an issue like immigration. True that using disparate anecdotes forms a weak logical argument, however, these example are chosen for exactly that - that they are somewhat rare, and breaks the stereotypes.

What we need is for Hollywood to start singing praises for these unsung heroes to normalise the existence of these alternative 'heroes'. I wonder when i'm going to watch a hollywood film with an Asian-looking US president leading the world in the fight against hostile space invaders...