It’s the economy, stupid, is the best explanation of immigration

Former Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman. Source: Scoop

On Monday morning, an email arrived in my inbox featuring 13 migrants who are criminals of varying types – two were from Columbia and the other 11 were from majority Moslem countries.

All were refugees and the message was that Immigration New Zealand has blood on its hands for letting these criminals live here.

One of them was former Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman, who came here in 1990 with her parents when she was nine. She was convicted of shoplifting last year after stealing from high-end clothing boutiques.

The notion that Immigration NZ could have known Ghahraman would grow up to be a shoplifter is as ludicrous an idea as saying officials should have known she would become a human rights lawyer, which she did.

Others had committed much more serious crimes such as rape, murder and other violence and several, including the Somali-born Asha Abdille, who hijacked a plane in 2008, were clearly mentally ill.