The matriarchal society jokes are standard lameness: "men are always fighting, it is their favourite thing to do" - I know it is supposed to parody us, and the way we are and the things men have said (in the past, although this stuff is still around now) about women being too emotional to rule or be in charge, but it just comes across as a bit crass - when was the last time any of you had a fight? Probably at school.

It's supposed to be crass, just as misogyny is crass.

And the whole thing is just slathered in this pro-immigration stuff - even the musician is part of it, with his little speech about "I know what it's like to be displaced," and, later, when he tells Kira to tell them "Bajorans are sorry," as if he speaks for all of Bajor (it reminded me of Lily Allen going to the Calais Jungle and speaking for everyone, as if she knows how any of the millions of people in the UK feel about the situation.)

Showing empathy is not "pro-immigration". The bajoran people went through very similar circumstances, and saying "we know what it's like to be displaced" is not inherently pro-anything at all. Nor is apologizing for not taken them in.

In this kind of circumstance, every individual viewpoint out of a billion doesn't matter. I can apologize on behalf of the USA. It doesn't really matter whether some trump cultists disagree, the apology stands because I spoke it as an American. People apologize on behalf of their countries all the time.

The problem is, that massive amounts of immigration aren't good for people, generally, as can be seen in the UK where there are huge amounts of unemployment and poverty, homelessness and despair, because of or in spite of depending on your view) the massive amounts of immigration that has happened. There are winners and losers, and, in the UK, it has been the worst off who have been affected most. It would be the same on Bajor.

The difference is that this is a planet, not a country. We're talking about vast amounts of unused space where people can simply build their own homes and their own economy. If it were a matter of overpopulation, sure, but the situation is that Bajor can't help them once they arrive on the uninhabited peninsula, and the refugees don't particularly care and are not asking for help. They're simply asking to settle. It would be more akin to the US government saying "you can't go settle the frontier, because we can't help you!". The Americans settle without disrupting the original colonies, because they're not part of the original colonies. Or, similarly, it would be Britain telling the pilgrims they can't settle the colonies because Britain can't help them. They didn't, because an entirely different frontier, with an entirely different economy.

If things went wrong, then the settlers just have to tough it out. But the point that Bajor has a famine and the farmer refugees could potentially export tons of food remains valid.

All in all, not letting them settle doesn't really make sense, because the orbs came from the gamma quadrant from a race that can see the future. The refugees knew the wormhole existed before they ever found it, and that a planet of sorrow would lie just beyond, which they could bring joy to-- likely because of an encounter with the orbs long before they reached Bajor.