US President-elect Donald Trump will struggle to make America great again by shunning migrants. Credit:AP He has been an astute observer of our nation for 30 years and his most recent book, Australia's Second Chance, makes it clear that "our periods of strong migration have been our most successful, our worst are distinguished by the closing of our doors". In chronicling the past 200 years, he makes the point that "Americans view migration as essential to their nationhood" saying "migrants literally made the United States". Donald Trump is headed in the opposite direction and while there may well be some initial euphoria about dropping taxes, turning his back on migrants is counter to the trends of immigration that actually realised his election mantra of "making America great again". George points out that in Australia, we define the benefits of migration in cultural terms, mainly food.

We define the benefits of migration in cultural terms, mainly food. Credit:Stefan Postles Where would we be without our waves of migration? Senior Sydney readers, who recall the1930s, will know about Harry Edwards' pie cart at the front gates of the Woolloomooloo dock yard. It still operates today as Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Harry's family were migrants from "the old country" and his pies were welcomed by sailors and wharfies alike. What a gift the Greeks gave with the souvlaki, which is now a global cure for late-night munchies. Credit:Eddie Jim My Melbourne office is three cricket pitches from the South Melbourne market where Ken Cheng started a stall many years ago. Mr Cheng fled China in the 1930s and reportedly was a cook in Darwin for General Douglas Macarthur after the war.

His famous "South Melbourne" dim sims have been drawing queues for decades on market days, but I doubt if he would have qualified for a 457 visa. Illustration: Cathy Wilcox A very humble man, he used to get up at 4am to make his delicacies. The recipe remains a family secret and people from everywhere applaud them for their taste as well as their mega size. But what a migrant Mr Cheng was. He died in 2006 and is survived by five children. He put them through university and made them great Australians. The Chiko Roll is a unique amalgam of the spring roll and the sausage roll.

And then of course there are the Italians. I can remember when the only spaghetti and sauce you could get was in a can. But our "Iti" mates, or "wogs" as they were derisorily called, transformed our palates and our economy for the better. They paved the way for the Greeks who rapidly turned Melbourne into the second-biggest Greek community after Athens. My regular taxi driver George is from the island of Cephalonia and he never stops talking about the delights of Greek olives, feta and oregano – all now staples of suburban Aussie kitchens. And what a gift the Greeks gave with the souvlaki, which is now a global cure for late-night munchies and hangovers.

International conflict has always provided an impetus for the growth of Australian culture and wealth, and in the '70's the Vietnam War caused a new wave of people seeking to rebuild their lives, and as it happens, expand our tastes. Many an office worker now prefers a bowl of "pho" to a Four and Twenty. And speaking of pies, who knows the cultural origin of the "pie floater" – a strange South Australian dish, which requires a perfectly good crusty pie to be partially submerged in a bowl of pea and ham soup. Our ability to merge cultural influences showed up in Bendigo in 1951, when the city with the world's longest Chinese dragon invented the Chiko Roll – a unique amalgam of the spring roll and the sausage roll. And even our most famous dessert, the pavlova, has cross-cultural influences of a surprising kind – the Kiwi's reckon they invented it.

There is no doubt that we have got the food but I wonder if we have got the message. Migration is good for our economy and our country. Immigration creates jobs and it doesn't reduce the opportunities for our resident population – most of whom have a recent migrant background anyway. We are a great multicultural country and that's the way it has worked for the last 200 years. Even before that, Australian Aborigines were originally migrants via a land bridge from Asia. These days a tinny and an outboard motor can get you almost anywhere if you're lucky. The mobility of humans just keeps increasing exponentially and with that the constant evolution of cultures. The same issues face us with any challenge. Do we try pulling back into some self-defensive position or do we go for growth and expansion?

Actually there is no real choice here. It's grow or decline.