This is a very controversial topic in Australia, and everyone seems to have an opinion on it: asylum seekers. I limit the scope of my rant here to people arriving in boats, so called “boat people”. Such folk are variously referred to as “illegal refugees”, “illegal boat people” etc, when they are doing nothing wrong and seeking nothing more than refuge from a way of life that is far removed from that which is familiar to the average Australian.
For years now (especially since the fall of Saigon), Australia has seen people arrive on its shores in boats, usually rickety, infested with disease and pests and full of people who could not care less, because these conditions are better than being back in their home countries, or in any place that refuses to settle them. Imagine the life of a Muslim Rohingya, thrown out of Burma to live in limbo across the border in Bangladesh, an even poorer country than their place of origin. It is by no fault of their own that you have been made homeless and stateless. Put yourself in the position of such a person – if someone offered you and your family the prospect of a better life, would you not grasp it? What would you have to lose? So by whatever means, you either arrive on our shores or are picked up by navy patrol ships and sent to Christmas Island for “processing”, where you are told you can claim asylum and be granted official refugee status. I imagine you would hope for eventual residency status and citizenship.
Now here’s the controversial thought – what’s wrong with doing that?
We have this fear in Australia of immigrants, a real, deep fear that they are never Australian enough and that they will dilute the values that we hold dear as Australians: things like mateship, a love of cricket and the principle of giving someone a fair go. Well I have news for you:
- Mateship is not an Australian invention (despite John Howard’s best efforts to make it seem so). It is a human trait and exists in every culture on Earth, springing from a primal need to be tribal. We create tribes around our language and our shared values, which become asserted in times of trouble, hence a deep belief in mateship amongst generations of Australians whose lives were touched by war.
- Cricket is devastatingly boring to watch (perhaps not to play) and I don’t think that will ever change, unless it learns a thing or two from Blernsball.
- So who is getting a fair go here, exactly?
My point is that we unfairly fear something that does not exist – people who want to settle in Australia bring with them the ability to make Australia a better, richer and more interesting place. Many of them have known true hardship and value things that we take for granted.
The government and Opposition right now are locking horns over the wrong issue in the belief that people want border security to keep the riff raff out. Apparrently the Rudd government has lost control of our borders and we are being swamped by people because we have created as “pull factor” that makes people come here illegally. But of course there is a pull factor: it is our way of life. It is our wealth. It is our ability to work five days a week, then spend the other two doing whatever we want. The pull factor is not caused by government policy, it comes out of our desire to make life better for ourselves. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
Quite frankly, I would love to see the emergence of a political party in Australia that challenges the blanket closed-door policy of all the major parties. Perhaps we could call it the Richer Australia party and have a mission statement that reads something like this:
1. All humans are assets.
2. Settlement in Australia is by the grace of those who have settled before us, and our duty to those who come after is to ensure that their contribution to our society is one that makes life better in any capacity.
3. Our culture is changing, as all youthful cultures change. The culture of a young nation such as ours should be open to contribution by all Australians, regardless of heritage or creed.
We need to open our doors and set the focus not on welfare, but on human development. Pauline Hanson and many over the age of about 50 would probably read this and balk, but I really do think that we close our borders, hearts and minds to our own ruin. Take the United States as an example of how it should be: it was the land of dreams for many generations – a land of hope and freedom, and it is what made it a great nation (after slavery and cotton farming). If we want to enrich our way of life, I firmly believe the solution is to throw open our doors and tell people on the way in: “Welcome, friend. Tell me about your life.”
Then we will be the envy of the world.
