Temporary residents not "integrating" -- maybe because they're temporary?

The Opposition spokesperson for immigration, Scott Morrison, thinks that people holding temporary work visas are not "integrating" with Australian society.

His colleague Teresa Gambaro suspects this may have something to do with their unfamiliarity with certain cosmetic products.

Both of them seem to be missing the point: temporary residents are temporary, they aren't supposed to integrate. We only want them for their labour skills, not their ability to get outside of a cold beer, or whatever "integrating" means. If we wanted them to become part of our society, make their lives here, take part in our democracy, send their kids to school to become skilled Australians, we should give them permanent visas.

That's how it used to work, anyway. I can't think why we changed it.

But looking at this more closely, skilled professional politicians don't just let loose with statements like this without knowing exactly what they hope to gain by them. This is dogwhistling at its best. The art of the double entendre is to hide one meaning behind another. Migrants are smelly. So it's okay not to like them? Oh, no, I didn't mean that! Sorry if anyone took my comments the wrong way.

I suspect Ms Gambaro knows exactly how her comments are likely to be taken.