Fairer Australia Campaign Public Meeting

Hashim Elhassan

Granville Multicultural Community Centre & Western Sydney Action Now Campaign for Migrant Settlement Services

Brief History

I am not going to take you into a journey or a history of unfairness exercised towards migrants and refugees since the camel transport industry when the Afghans were exported from the British Empire to work as camel riders in the Central desert of Australia - that happened in 1860s.That unfairness didn't stop even though we all sing "Advance Australia Fair." I am going to limit my speech in the last ten years because of two reasons:

First Reason: I have lived here for 10 years. I have come across and witnessed the dramatic increase in unfairness, discrimination and racism exercised towards Aboriginals, Jews, Asians, Vietnamese, Chinese and recently Arabs and Muslims.

Second Reason: the unfairness faced by migrants, refugees and asylum seekers whether it is institutionalised or random is driven by the ideology of HEGEMONY and that means where migrants, refugees and asylum seekers fit in the Australian context of "power relations". In other words it is a big story and there is research, reports, findings and surveys on the shelves of "people in power" offices gathering dust - they don't have time and tonight also our time is limited.

Let us reflect and just talk about the most recent "top three" issues of unfairness facing marginalised, disempowered migrants and refugees in today's AUSTRALIA:

Let me share with you the fact that since the mid-1990s the Federal Ministry of Immigration designed and reshaped the Australian immigration policy to cater to "professional" and employable migrants. The proportion of intake of skilled and professional migrants was increased to nearly 50% compared with the declining rate of intakes of family reunion and other visa holders. Migrants were being imported just like any product displayed in any retail outlet for sale. The product is there and the buyer decides to put the rule of the game. The buyer in this real life case study is Government and private sectors.

The rules of the game are as follows:
· The product has to get recognition
· The product has to already have had local work experience before joining the Australian workforce.
· Migrants find themselves caught in "catch 22" situations and face ironic excuse like "you are over qualified for this position".
· Migrants will give up trying to use their skills, professional career and accept any job. In most cases it is far away from their profession: that is unfair.

What happened to migrants is exactly the same for refugees. We all know that the current generation of refugees and humanitarian entrants composed of talents, expertise and highly educated and dedicated people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Rwanda and many others. Some might say we got the cream of the crop from these countries and the bitter fact is unfairness extended to the area like employment and recognition of their AUSTRALIANISM.

That is unfair plus bad management of Australian Social Capital. It is institutionalised abuse to the wealth and potentials of these communities. It is brain draining for both Australia and the country of origin.

Settlement Services:
There have been more than 12 Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in NSW operating and functioning well for more than 20 years. The main objectives of MRCs are to work as a "one stop shop" and provide initial support, assistance to newly arrived refugees and migrants in their first touch to Australian reality.

These include:
· Provision of Information, referral, group work, case management, advocacy, resource sharing.
· Assisting in resolving issues of concern faced by migrants and refugees in their early days for example: housing, education, health, legal, employment.
· Organising seminars, workshops, information sessions, meetings, conferences, camps with the aim of raising awareness and building capacity for their communities to participate in socio-economic life of Australia.

In fact I would like to tell you tonight that these 12 MRCs did and are doing their jobs incredibly well. Accumulated within this period of more than 20 years a legacy of high professionalism, unique expertise, quality service delivery and a high standard of accountability, credibility and transparency.
MRCs are environmentally free of racism, prejudice, and discrimination on the basis of religion, colour, gender, language, and culture. The job done and still doing by MRCs is invaluable and highly regarded for their culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Recently DIMIA (the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs) launched "the Review of Settlement Services for migrants". 1001 consultations, meetings, visits, talks, surveys had been conducted by the Federal Minister and his high officials. The bottom line and unspelled intention of the review is to fix "unbroken module" and to break the historically fixed relationship between "one stop shop" and newly arrived migrants…that is unfair because:

· DIMIA decided to withdraw core funding eg, positions of Manager/Coordinator, Community Project Officer, Receptionist and Bookkeeper, and rent will no longer to be funded. These are the positions that keep the coordination of service and guarantee a holistic approach to the migrant's issues and concerns, developing, planning and evaluating the services.
· Without core funding MRCs staff will waste a lot of time, resources and money , running a round trying to find enough money to pay for basic functions such as reception and bookkeeping.
This will result in further fragmentation of service provision to migrants and refugees and that is unfair…

Third Issue: Migrant Community and DIMIA Policy
MRCs play a vital role side by side with all community based NGOs and are a corner stone of the remaining Australian civil society. Government policy is in favour of the competitive model in which non-profit organisations are pushed and enforced to copy the practices of for-profit enterprises. Through contracts, tender, purchase of service, user-pays system and finally through funds stripping or cuts in this regard I would like to mention Skillshare Centres, SMPO projects, CES are just examples of what can be affected migrants and refugees.

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers communities feel orphanised, labelled, detained and paralysed by such unfair policy makers as it results in silencing their voice and prevents them from improving their lives within the Australian framework of democratic participation.

Since August 2001 up to October 2003 for more than 26 months refugees who are guaranteed their visas through Australian Embassies Overseas and came to their new home were being treated extremely unfairly:
· Families' members, children, women and young persons slept on foam mattresses with no beds and absolutely poor assistance to start living. It was bad, bad welcome. It was unfair, unjust, inhuman and additional Trauma.
· Each family is given $1163 regardless of the size of the family - contrary to international claims made by The Federal Minister in his overseas tours when he kept talking about the generosity of Australian program of immigration.
· Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers were labelled as "unauthorised", "illegal", "boat people" and numbered according to more than 10 classes of visas. The meaning behind such unfair approach can be lined up to their countries of origin e.g, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and personally I would like to ask innocent question: how many back-packers who overstayed their visas and didn't enjoy these comments?
· It is because of their race, religion or country or origin e.g, UK & USA.

The discourse or the Federal DIMIA officials, media and some other institutions in this regard is unfair, unacceptable and against the law.

Children and women were detained for years and they were then found to be genuine refugees. One refugee was asked to pay $89 000 for his detention. Some detainees are still in detention Centres for more than six years. That is unfair, ex-detainees deserve a better welcome and official apologies from DIMIA.

DIMIA pushes the communities to compete for getting "Harmony Money"….that is a joke. The reality is: community is divided, disempowered, under resourced and fractioned.

The institutionalised policy of bullying constrains, manipulates and negatively impacts on capacity building and community leadership and leads to disharmony and misunderstanding. Migrant communities are the most disadvantaged by the lack of accessibility to services and equity.

In closing:
· We must work together in this campaign to put issues of migrants and refugees in front of the candidates for the seat of Parramatta.

· A Fairer Australia is possible if we:
Consistently pursue a Social Justice Agenda.
Make change and achieve results within new creative and non- traditional strategies.

· Save Australian Civil Society as a corner stone of Australian democracy.

· Migrants and Refugees deserve better and human welcome and "Fair Dinkum" treatment.
Thank You