Should developed countries accept migrants who want work as well as asylum seekers?

The Australian parliament has voted down a bill that the government said was needed to save the lives of those who are attempting to get to Australia in often flimsy boats from Indonesia.  The governing party was attempting to pass a bill that would allow offshore processing of asylum seeking following a boat filled with asylum seekers capsizing north of Christmas Island. Predictably both sides pointed the finger at each other with the Prime Minister arguing “Mr Abbott did not move one millimetre at any stage in this discussion. He has made it clear he is not prepared to move one millimetre while people are drowning at sea” and Mr Abbot, the leader of the opposition liberals arguing the PM should have taken what the Parliament was willing to give. The Prime Minister wanted to send asylum seekers to Malaysia but for many this does not provide enough protection for the migrants human rights. As with many other countries debates on migration the emphasis is on creating a deterrent to try and reduce the flow of people seeking to get into the country. The debate is coloured by those who are not genuine asylum seekers but are instead economic migrants. Australia is one of the few developed countries with a booming economy so it is attractive for those seeking jobs. The real question should be whether those countries that are in the rich developed world should not have some kind of an obligation to allow the less well off into the country to work and to develop skills. It has been more than two decades since the United Nations signed The U.N. Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families yet no western migrant receiving state has ratified the convention worried about the increased burdens of protecting migrant workers. Given the furor about genuine asylum seekers in countries like Australia it is unlikely they will move any time soon.

http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/International-affairs/house-believes-nations-world-should-increase-protection-economic-migrants

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18621553