What is an Australian

Following on from the backlash Debbie received in the comments section of her blog last week (Pensioners vs Refugee payments) - - http://www.aboutseniors.com.au/index.php/kayes_blog/ive_seen_the_future#debbie

Kaye's Blog this week is "What is an Australian"

Well Debbie certainly bit off more than she could chew when she blogged last week on the plight of refugees coming to Australia.
The good news for our website is that so many of subscribers are prepared to share their thoughts and opinions on how Australia should view visitors including legal and illegal immigrants.
As one of the proprietors of About Seniors website (David is the other) I welcome comments, feedback and ideas from each and every subscriber and visitor. This site was never intended to be a vehicle for narrow or sectional views. From our perspective it should host opinions from every age group and every persuasion.
So the following is just my opinion, which crystallised as I read the responses to Debbie’s suggestion that this land is large enough to absorb those who are fleeing from trouble or economic deprivation. If you think I am wrong then tell me!

I got to thinking about Australia, and who should be entitled to live here and that led to me wondering about what actually makes a person an Australian.
When I grew up, the current wave of immigration was, largely, people from the southern Mediterranean – Greeks and Italians and Lebanese seeking a better life than that they had known scratching out a subsistence living on a small farm holding in their home country. Many of the men, after arriving in Australia, worked on construction sites. My father, Jack, used to come home and talk about bloody “wogs” and “Eyeties” and even then it sounded a bit mean. These people had fled war and arrived here, only to be put in basic camps. Many worked on the Snowy Mountain Scheme. I guess Dad felt he had gone overseas and fought in the Second World War and he wasn’t quite prepared to share the hard won spoils with economic refugees from other countries when he, himself, was struggling to put food on the table. Fair enough. But over time Jack mellowed and even a discussion of the Japanese was allowed to enter the conversation. Now these immigrants have sons and daughters who form the backbone of our community – good people who are doctors and nurses and teachers. They are allowed to call themselves Australians. As are the Vietnamese who entered Australia in the wake of the Vietnam War – traumatized and desperate, but now more firmly established and prosperous and also proud to be considered Australian.
I have never struggled to feed myself or my family, so I don’t understand what it is like to resent someone else who seems to be helping themselves to “my” share. But I am aware, even though my Australian born ancestors go back two centuries, that I too, am an immigrant.
When the first white men landed in Australia the local inhabitants weren’t just treated poorly – they were shot, poisoned and hanged. This is what we did when we first arrived, regardless of how many centuries have elapsed since.
Nevertheless the original people – the indigenous people – have tried to deal with our arrival and put up with us even though we have taken just about everything that they hold dear.
Australia has a land space of 7.6 million square kilometres – much of it uninhabitable, to be sure.
There are 48 million displaced people in the world.
We currently allow approximately 12-13000 people to enter each year.
If we allowed one person per each 100 square kilometres this would mean there are 76,000 places – less the current 13,000…. 63,000 more people who could share our natural riches.
Even Australians who exist on the lowest of incomes have access to food, clean water and basic services.
Those in refugee camps around the world don’t have this luxury.
Australians have always prided themselves on the sense of mateship and a fair go for all.
Would it really make us less of a people if we learned to share?
I think not.

What do you think?
Is Kaye wrong on this point?


Visit the Link to view the comments made on her blog, and comment below in the meeting place - http://www.aboutseniors.com.au/index.php/kayes_blog/what_is_an_australian

4 comments

The points that you make are quite valid except for one basc truth and as I see it the following is of great concern to me and many other Australians

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The fear of refugees stems from the 9/11 attack on America and the distinct possibility that Terrorists are on the boats ...........We do not know and we try to find out but they slip through the system as witness a spate of recent arrests ..........Suspects who were plotting to kill us

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This fear did not exist in the time that you mention when many many skilled technicians from Europe helped to build this great Country of ours and they have in many ways shown their loyalty and we trust them ...........I do not trust this new lot at all and if we do we will do so to our peril

I tend to think of Australia as a lifeboat and we few who are in it are safe and warm. Sure, we can let some more people in, but we should ensure that those who come in wont "rock the boat", or even worse, sink us all. I dont support the resurrection of the "white Australia" policy and I have the greatest respect for the religeon of Islam. I believe that we SHOULD help and support our fellow man according to HIS need and OUR ability but, isnt that FOREIGN AID?

So many countries around the world have opened the floodgates to refugees and are now paying the price - many refugees see developed nations as the "land of milk and honey" and go straight onto welfare and proceed to reproduce at alarming rates. In accepting large numbers of refugees, we run the risk of degrading the strength of our nation and our (and our childrens') quality of life for the future.

I would much rather support government or corporate initiatives along the lines of "volunteers abroad" who help other nations/cultures to improve their own infrastructure, food supply and general quality of life. Sending food, medicinal or technological aid to countries like North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe etc is a complete waste - it goes to support the military or the ruling elite and the poor see nothing of it. We SHOULD boost foreign aid, but ONLY to those nations who accept what (and How) we are prepared to give - i.e., only allow aid to be spent at a local level on projects that are supervised by reputable corporate, charitable or U.N. administrators. Our aid should not be diverted to support military or repressive regimes and every effort should be made to limit bribery and corruption.

The long term solution to this problem is not a diaspora of poorer people to developed nations, but a concerted and ongoing effort to rectify the problems at their source.

We should not seek to meddle in the affairs of sovereign nations, but repressive regimes must be made to (a) understand that the world will no longer tolerate dictatorships, (B) their crimes and excesses will ultimately result in trial and punishment and (C) developed nations will support the oppressed population, NOT the government. We give the aid, we should ensure that it goes where it is intended (and needed).

We should not be constantly shovelling money into places like Ethiopia, but rather invest in solving their historical water problem and upgrading their agricultural industries - then, they can feed themselves.

I know our world is far from perfect and my "wish list" may never eventuate, but the present world refugee situation requires new and innovative thinking. We cant take them all in and we cant just keep "throwing money" at the problem.

Thats all very sweet, but, as a 5th generation australian, who married an Irish man, then a ten pound Scot migrant who came over with his family at 17 and now have wonderful half Italian grandchildren. I come from a large family so we now have many different nationalities in our family. who even though they came from places like Vietnam, Italy, Thailand etc think that we should be more careful about who we let into the country Then there is the Indian taxi driver who told my neice that we were getting too many Sri Lankans into the country. I love Australia with a deep passion and welcome anyone who comes here to be Australian but I do not believe a lot of the latest "economic refugees "want our way of life. They want to change our laws, our banking system, etc. etc. and treat our women as they treat theirs--with violence, violation and no respect for our anti discrimation laws, and if we do not comply with what they want threaten to blow us up. I will admit that I dont feel comfortable going to my local shopping centre and feeling like I'm in another country or trying to make a call to a govt agency and not understand the people on the other end of the line, then getting off the phone worried that he/she had not understood my question, because I certainly had not understood their answer. So I look at other countries that are fighting to keep their own culture, like England, France, Denmark, Holland etc and I say slow down lets be a little careful and remember our own culture is worth preserving and if we dare to protest about the changes occuring we are labled racist, but racism can be on both sides of the fence which the Media and Govt refuse to acknowledge.

Good Lord I just read the Austrn newspaper and I think all australian should be very worried--join Muslim Asia or Perish -- we can no longer afford to be fools and accept anyone that comes to this country.

4 comments



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