Chapter 455: Chapter 362: Rapid Growth of Economy and Population_2
The problem is that due to the extreme nationalism in Australasia, the millions of indigenous people are not accepted by most Australasians.
Most of these people have fundamental differences in religion and culture with ordinary Australasians and are not so easy to assimilate.
The easily assimilated ones are the indigenous people of the newly acquired colonies. These indigenous people have lived with European immigrants for decades, many of them can use English proficiently, and some have even converted to Christianity.
Especially in some colonies of the British Empire, many indigenous people have adopted Protestantism and regard English as their main language.
These indigenous people are relatively easy to assimilate and may become recognized citizens of Australasia in the future.
Although the increase in population is good news, the various subsidies granted by the Australasian Government to newborns and immigrants have also consumed a lot of funds.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Finance, the subsidies given by the Australasian Government to newborn families amounted to more than three million Australian Dollars.
These figures have grown by more than 20% compared to last year, which shows that there are more and more newborns in Australasia.
However, this is good news for Arthur and the Australasian Government.
Compared to immigrants, the native-born infants are the core population. These people are of pure Australasian blood from birth, and their recognition of the nation and the people is much higher than that of immigrants from abroad.
These immigrants from abroad need at least fifteen years of assimilation to fully integrate them into Australasian society.
It is still due to the reason that European immigrants and Australasians are almost of the same origin. If they were immigrants of different skin color and race, the time for assimilation would be multiplied.
Due to the large number of newborns, the average number of people per household in Australasia is as high as 6.3.
This also means that Australasian couples of childbearing age have generally started to choose to have three or four children.
If this continues, it may only take a few years for the number of newborns in Australasia alone to reach as high as one million each year.
By then, the Australasian Government will not need to work hard to import immigrants from abroad; it only needs to properly handle the domestic increase in population and develop Australasia into a country with a large population.
If the current population trend is followed, Australasia's population growth rate is very exaggerated.
If the population growth rate can be stabilized, the population of Australasia may double in ten years.
Of course, immigration will more or less be affected by the war, and doubling the population in ten years is entirely achievable.
If it weren't for Australasia's strict requirements for Russian immigrants, the number of Russian immigrants alone would have exceeded one million years ago.
For the Russian population, Arthur only needs those common people with clear backgrounds, that is, the former serfs.
For those with unique thoughts or who are not very stable, they naturally have to go through strict selection and will not be allowed to enter the territory of Australasia.
Arthur does not want a future Russian revolution to spread to the territory of Australasia. The most destructive thing for a country is not foreign aggression but internal chaos.
Of course, foreign intelligence personnel are not omnipotent, and some may slip through the net to Australasia.
However, all immigrants coming to Australasia must go through an observation period of about six months.
During this half-year, intelligence personnel, immigration agencies, public security, and police departments, as well as local governments, will closely monitor these immigrants. Once any problems are discovered, their ultimate fate is to work in the mines for a lifetime.
Do not underestimate Arthur's emphasis on immigration. Just in 1913, the Australasian Government singled out hundreds of "unstable elements" with unclear backgrounds from immigrants.
Some of them either engaged in illegal activities before immigration or were participants and planners of revolutions.
These people don't even think about it, they go straight into Arthur's blacklist and win the right to mine labor.
If they want to regain their freedom, they may have to pray that Australasia becomes a world hegemon soon so that Arthur can be happy, and maybe with a wave of his hand, he will release them.
Moreover, once these people are identified, they have to go through interrogation. If it is discovered that they purposefully came to Australasia as part of a gang, they may face immediate execution by firing squad.
For the stability and security of Australasia, Arthur adheres to the attitude of "better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one go" in immigration.
Even if he can maintain stability during his own rule, Arthur cannot guarantee that without his suppression, Australasia's revolutionary forces will not surface.
Therefore, eradicating them from the root is the only way Arthur can think of to maintain national stability.
As long as the people of Australasia can live good lives and the entry of foreign revolutionaries is curtailed as much as possible, the safety and stability of Australasia can still be guaranteed.
Although Australasia is in dire need of population, it still maintains a six-month observation period restriction on every immigrant.