Migration in to Australia has been (in my view) an enormous benefit to Australia as a nation.
Recalling that Australia was a British Colony and in some ways by its early formation (I mean after Federation) we were some sort of (stagnant?) pond of Englishmen, often desperate for something to relieve the boredom in life and get some excitement. I mean just look how many ran off to support Mother England in her time of need against the Boers and in WW1.
Despite the (loathsome) White Australia Policy, we got a small share of immigrants from European countries and a smaller section from Asia. Some may argue that the policy was needed to help consolidate us as a people before too many diverse influences disturbed things too much, particularly in light of our experience after the Gold Rush period.
Luckily for me, by the time I went to school (70's) I had Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese in my school and thought this was "normal". It wasn't until I met up with English immigrants to Australia later in my University time that I understood what racism was (and these guys still know their stuff). Got a whole new set of slang which you'd have to hang around with "skinheads" to get.
Visiting Tasmania in the mid 80's was a sample of what Australia could have been like if we didn't have the migration and broadening of views that we have in the mainland(just watch the Taswegians get shitty with this assertion). For example when I was in Tasmania in 1996 I asked our "hotel" where I could get some decent leb food as I was really in the mood for a good chicken yiros. I was given the disdainful answer of
"we don't have ethnic food here.(wow ... insert banjo's here I thought at the time)
I spent some years in Brisbane and coming from a small town thought that the diversity of food and culture was outstanding.
The really wonderful thing about all the immigration into Australia is that it has (largely) gone so well, with little real friction and violence.
But I find that is starting to change ... and I really wonder if its because of us or because something has changed.
Perhaps its because we have immigration and asylum
You see the thing I'm thinking is that immigrants are perhaps different to Asylum seekers.
Immigrants come to Australia seeking a new life, a fresh start. I have the notion that they wanted to fit in, to become "Australian".
I'm not so sure this is the case with assylum seekers, who may come here just because its so much better than the hell they are escaping.
This brings me to another point. Our experience with sending our own people to hell (such as war in Korea or Vietnam) has returned to us traumatised men who could not fit back into the culture from which they (so few years before) had come.
Many of the assylum seekers who come here have been through stuff which would leave many Australians a jumbling wreck in need of counselling (if that even helped).
So my question is can we expect people who have come from a place so unlike here to fit in?
I think the answer is no, not without sincere assistance and support.
Are we providing that? Well the answer to that is pretty clearly no.
So (as many would ask) why are we accepting them?
Well Australia has a legal obligation to accept refugees as we are a signatory to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. You can read the
Convention and find out more information about it here.
Its important to remember that this convention was put forward in 1951 and has its roots in handling the horror of World War 2 where there were millions of displaced peoples as a result of the changes happening to borders (Russian occupations, Allied occupations, walls being built...)
I wonder if this is really applicable (and applicable to us) now?
I have a fear that our participation in this is resulting in us becoming hardened to all foreigners and that's not a good thing.
Our Nation has been enriched by people from all over the world. We have an insight into our neighbors which we could not have other wise had, we have a more diverse set of thoughts which can look into solving our problems in better ways ... the list is almost endless.
Are we being enriched by people who come and can exist only on welfare, who naturally then cluster into groups and raise children who feel isolated and distanced? People who have radically different ideas on what's normal and whats right and wrong.
Its not working in Belgium and its not working in France ...
I'd really like to encourage debate on this issue ... and perhaps its a hard one to tackle, but we must start talking about this issue.
Do you want to go back to "bangers and mash" and "God Save the Queen" ... I sure as shit don't
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