you're correct, redgeek. It's all about harvesting votes. I'm reminded of the big campaign Bob hawke himself fronted to convince migrants to become citizens. With the traditional power base (i.e. blue-collar workers) of Labor-like govts diminishing around the post-industrised world, there has been a push to lock-in the migrant vote...it's called clientalism: they'll vote for you because they think they depend on you.
It's one definition of stupidity, i.e. the failure to learn from the mistakes of others. The irony here is that by destabilisng their societies, leftwing govts sow the seeds for a future rightwing backlash, e.g. witness whats been happenking in france, Holland, Austria. Part of berlusconi's recent success is based on the view that he'll be tougher on illegal migation.
