Refugee Contributions to Australia

In addition to the tens of thousands who fled poverty and persecution in Europe after the war - Jews, Italian, , Greeks, English, Irish, Lebanese, Maltese ...., here are a few relatively recent refugees who have contributed a great deal to our lucky country

1. Czech-born Frank Lowy, Australia's most successful shopping-center magnate who also established one of the country's most-quoted international policy think tanks, the Lowy Institute, was 13 and living in Hungary when the Nazis invaded.

 

2. The Honourable" James Spigelman, lieutenant governor of New South Wales and chief justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, was a Polish-born refugee.

3. Khoa Do, a Vietnamese-born writer and actor named 2005's "Young Australian of the year" for his "leadership, compassion, and will to inspire and inform Australians on issues that affect our community," arrived in Australia aboard a leaky 25-foot boat in 1980, "crammed in like sardines.”

4. Huy Truong, one of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs, and the founder and director of more than one multimillion-dollar business, including dot-com company Wishlist, arrived from Vietnam aged 7 with just the clothes on his back.

5. Tan Le, 1998 "Young Australian of the Year" and once voted one of Australia’s 30 most successful women under 30, arrived from Vietnam as a refugee in 1982.

6. Majak Daw, the first Sudanese Australian to be drafted into the wildly popular Australian Football League, fled the Sudanese civil war to Egypt, before finally making it to Australia.

There are thousands of stories like these, but nothing published here. No just the negative vile hatred of the few who live a sad existence in their own little worlds

6 comments

I am really impressed.  Of the 11 Million immigrants who have come here since 1947, you can name 6 who have really made it.  With a little bit of work, I could probably add another 100 or so.  I am proud of these immigrants, but a lot more people have won Lotto in NSW since it was introduced in 1994.  Try to find out how many Lebanese Muslems are on the long time unemployment list with Centrelink.  They will not even release the information under FOI.  I am not expressing hatred, only fact.

you're such a child.

why pick on lebanese, how many other races are on the dole?

how many brain surgeons, acadsemics, scientists, researchers actors, artists, musicians, enterpreneurs are refugees/immigrants

thousands upon thousands

most quietly go about their business 

bottom line is 100% of the Australian population are immigrants who came here as refugees, under some form of work visa, ocppational priority, business migration, convict, or in the case of the first australians, probably just walked across the land mass that connected australia to asia all those years ago.

now we have a new generation of refugees, we must deal with them as civilised people should, with empathy and fairness.

You asked the question Jaguar.  How many & what is your source?  I happened to pick, not on Lebanese, but Lebanese Muslems who, made up only around 40,000 actually born in Lebanon, according to the 2006 Census,  but make up the biggest individual number of the long term unemployed.  You made the point of mentioning the large numbers of various categories & in there you included business migration.  In actual fact, the complications of these applications are so complex & long term (around 3 years min., for PR) that the Companies like ours who try to specialise in them, find that the numbers are minute but lucrative.  In the overall scheme of things they just don't count.  You continue to make statements that show your lack of knowledge & made up as you go.  In actual fact, well under 25% of Australian Citizens were Immigrants.  Their parents, grand parents etc., yes, but not them.

what a joke. you work for a company that makes money out of the refugee business so you indirectly work for the refugees. they feed, house and clothe you.

too funny ROFLMAO

if you really beleive the system has faile dand it all a rort, show some moral backbone and resign.

one other thing, you' re employed, but instead of wporking, you're spending time posting on this site. you're no better than a dole bludger

Is any reasonable comment a compulsory source of your personal uninformed insults Jaguar?  Who informed you that I work for MY Company?  I am the CEO & own 30% of the shares in an Immigration Agency Company that specialises in business immigration , but gets the bulk of it's income from genuine Migration & Education, both here & in China.  I am not & never have been an employee.  We do NOT do any refugee work, other than a very odd pro bono case which we do without any charge whatsoever.  We have never been involved in a single Illegal Immigrant case.  BTW, I seem to remember you defending the unemployed that you refer to insultingly as dole bludgers.

that's even funnier. no wonder you're pissed off with the immigrants from indian and those coming by boat, and the lebanese (muslims as you put it). there's no money in it for you.

so you are one of the third parties helping to fill in forms for the applicants. so what if in a few months from now there is a report that says 70% of migrants from China are arriving under false pretences. should we tarnish you and everyone who came here with the same brush?

you call yourself a CEO, yet you are unable to think logically. are unemployed the same as dole bludgers in your book?

so now i understand.. there's more than just a slight conflict of interest at play and hence your baised postings. Ciao

I knew I was foolish to come back on here.  I will leave it to you to carry on the site with your friends Jaguar.

You wont find it Innes,they would classify that big time,anything to do with the Lebanese is off limits,if Australians knew how they screw Centrelink,and the insurance companies they would get spat on in the street!....sorry got to go to the Litigation Lawyer,got Lebanese back,its in the dictionary too,the Asians are the only non white,European immigrants who integrate successfully in Australia,good on em.

Guess what Innes,you are not Robinson Crusoe,I got better things to do with my time to.

billy

So called refugees who can afford to pay people smugglers show no 'empathy or fairness' to poor people who've been languishing for years in camps who're also hoping at a chance for a better life, or don't they count?... out of sight..out of mind?

You don't need to be broke to be an asylum seeker/refugee Maggs . A refugee is a person escaping war , persecution or a natural disaster .

I would be interested to know what she, the toothless cat Dagwood, has been doing for the benefit of everyone, apart from being an insulting buffoon.

If its got teeth like you Seth probably chewing carrots,amongst other things,you know,parsnips,cucumbers etc,you thought i meant something else,dident you. lol

mmigration

Sorry that is so small but I had to fit it in.

In the 2006 census that innes mentioned, 74850 came from Lebanon & of these 53.3% cited Christianity as their religion and 40.5% cited Islam. This is different to the figures innes quoted..

It is interesting to see the labour force figures in the diagram.

More detail is available at http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3416.0Main+Features42008

My apologies Lushy.  I did not read before posting.  It should have been 40%, not 40,000.  I got a magnifying glass & read your figures.  No argument other than the fact that I did not refer to unemployed.  I referred to long term unemployed.

Thanks for the link Lushy .

Just enlarge the page with Mouse Wheel

blimey I need a magnifying glass to read that Slushy.

I hope slushy is not considering furthering his education, the thought is terrifying. His life story written on a pin head.

seth - lushy's not just a pretty face you know. give the guy some credit

I heard lushy was studying to be an athiest, it was either that, or get a job,      Work was out, you had to think.

Geo, I hear you and understand but the fact remains that we see able bodied men who've paid for their passage while leaving families behind ( at risk of persecution?) and also thousands of folk patiently awaiting their 'turn' in camps, the folk I mean get here thru' illegal means and expect their needs to be met and some riot when they don't get their way, women and kids should be given preference imo, let the children assimilate thru' schooling etc.

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