Luke is joined by Dr Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration and author of “Population Shock,” who expresses concern about Australia potentially mirroring Europe and North America, where immigrants face exploitation without rights and may become dependent on welfare.

If the labour market weakens as forecast by Treasury over the next 12-24 months, up to 2 million people will face difficulties retaining a job or the hours they currently have, says Dr Rizvi.

In past economic downturns, temporary entrants and newly arrived migrants have tended to be the first to lose their jobs.  Refused asylum seekers tend to be the most vulnerable to exploitation.

Australia has never before had such large numbers of refused asylum seekers living in the community. This situation is unprecedented in Australia’s history.

Assisting refused asylum seekers is enormously challenging because most are unlikely to come forward to seek assistance… and the politics of asylum seekers in Australia is of course fraught.

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