I’m an immigrant. If you subscribe to the common rhetoric in mainstream news, and coming out of the mouths of rightwing politicians, my very existence here in Australia is in direct opposition to the success of “ordinary” (meaning white) Australians.
Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech last week reinforced the widely held belief that Australia is being swarmed by immigrants, coming to take the jobs, housing and culture of white Australians who automatically are prescribed a right to be here, as if they didn’t arrive by boat or plane at some point, too.
I find this baffling, and not just because prejudice of this kind is illogical. The thing that actually confuses me is that people who hate immigration seem to think that it’s easy for anyone overseas to up sticks and come here to steal their “way of life”.
Having grown up watching relatives and friends try to get out of the developing countries my family originates from, I can tell you first-hand that migrating to Australia is far from easy. It certainly doesn’t occur on a whim – the three primary visa pathways for Australia are for skilled immigrants, family/spouse visas or student visas. All of these cost a considerable amount of money, require a large burden of proof and are often contingent on criteria that directly benefit the Australian community, whether that’s by filling skills gaps or agreeing to live and work in regional or remote areas for a specific period of time. Asylum seekers make up a minority of new arrivals.
The price of entry should be indication enough that those of us who do attain citizenship are committed to our new homes and communities.
My own family migrated here in 1992. My father is an electrical engineer and successfully acquired a position in a regional electricity company. Apparently a board meeting was held at the time to confirm that no local options existed for the role. My mother worked at the local supermarket. They later owned successful businesses and have contributed a significant amount in taxes over the past 30 years, while never being unemployed or requiring the social safety net that Australians are fortunate to have access to. They also contributed socially to their communities, serving on school boards and P&C committees, donating to charities and employing numerous people in their businesses.
We are absolutely grateful to have built a life as Australians, but it should be noted that, had my parents been able to offer us the same quality of life, they would always have preferred to remain in their birth country of Fiji. But after numerous violent coups that hinged on the racist anti-Indian legacy that Fiji continues to grapple with, their safety and chances of economic security were compromised.
Immigration is not something that is done impulsively. There is a considerable social and economic cost to the individual immigrant. And the fact that Australia is a desirable target for immigration is also not because of some inherent cultural superiority that has created our success as a nation – this is stolen land that was developed on convict labour. It has relied on the work and skills of immigrants throughout its history to become the prosperous democratic nation it is now.
Immigrants will always be the scapegoats of economic hardship. Our difference makes us easy targets for blame in a political system that eagerly bolsters racist ideologies to drive votes. But the idea that Australia is being mobbed by selfish foreigners seeking to pilfer the country’s riches and turn “Aussies” out of their jobs and homes is both entirely untrue and impossible based on the attributes of our immigration system.
