Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 05:23:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Samir Kelekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Same case with the poorer migrants. They come to Goa because there is work for them --- especially in the booming construction industry. Others come to become fruit vendors because they find Goans are not competitive enough and they can capture the market. > Perhaps we should fight for a blanket ban on all construction activity in Goa. This can solve a lot of the problem. Richer migrants wont be able to buy flats, and so they wont migrate to Goa. A lot of the poorer migrants wont come because there won't be work for them. > Mario adds: > Samir, > Before your tongue got stuck in your cheek you were doing pretty good in your pithy analyses of the Goan dilemma. > Of course the problem is not the migrants. As with migrants the world over, and I am one, migrants are always held to a different standard, and should, in my opinion, as part of paying their dues, but tend to become convenient pawns when things seem to be going awry. > Say what you will, Goa today would be static without migrants. The largest economy in the world, the USA, would be static without migrants which is why legal migrants are celebrated here and welcomed with open arms in emotional citizenship ceremonies. > The most ironic example of Goa's dilemma is our good friend, Floriano, enterprising, emotional, highly motivated, honest to a fault, who would desperately like to protect Goa for Goans, but would be unable to conduct his construction business successfully without migrants. > Such is the price of freedom and progress in a thriving modern post-socialist democracy. >