A leaky boat across the ocean is the same as p+o right?

So today's opinion comes back to government policy, well kind of. Stick with me kids and I will take you there...

So if you don't have an opinion about immigration and boat people in Australia I suspect you have been hiding underneath something. Today's blog isn't about my opinion of how people should immigrate here. It's more about Australias checkered albeit quiet past in relation to immigration and ongoing injustices to those who don't fit the Aussie model.

Ok, so let's revisit history...

First Fleet arrive, aboriginals are killed, raped, exploited and decisions are made re their status as "people" to allow ongoing abuse etc. For those interested, women were also exploited significantly and were exposed to ongoing sexual crimes and violence for several generations on arrival from the motherland.

Somewhere along the line we decide that it's good to dig up a shiny gold like substance and it makes people rich. People rush to places, start digging stuff up and then become resentful angry and generally unpleasant to anyone who wasn't "Aussie", including the Chinese migrants who were too good at making money. Fast forward a couple of yrs and then we decide that migration is ok, but only if you are English (or some other Anglo nation), speak English and look like people who are English, and have an exceptional knowledge of random Australian historical events (no doubt to the exclusion of those details which might discourage people from migrating here).

Then, we decide that we need immigrants again, and increase the numbers, but again only from places which we approve of. Then people start coming by boats again (we don't like that anymore) and we don't like this, so we argue for lots of years, some people die and we make a new policy, send some bogans on a trip, they gain insight, we feel sorry for people for 2 mins and then decide to send them offshore in a "migration solution". Do we need to revisit the last time a leader started talking about "solutions" and sending people away. In fairness, those people went on trains rather than planes, but you see where I am going with this.

My brief (and I am certain not 100% accurate) history isn't meant to be exhaustive, it's Mostly to highlight the ongoing struggle Australia has had with migration and our perceptions of such. The understanding of the plight of those seeking asylum is bare for most people, and I am not for a second claiming to understand it more than others. But, I feel that as a society we do not exhibit empathy or try to understand how people come to end up in Australia. How bad must peoples lives and situations be to even consider making potentially life threatening journeys across the world to protect their children? Would you intentionally put your children in harms way, of course not. Would you sit on the roof of a detention centre and sew your lips together to get attention if you felt you could do so by just talking? This is of course assuming that there are people who speak your language.

So when I hear words like the migration solution coupled with knowledge that the place they are being sent has a less than impressive human rights record, it just makes me a little bit nervous, and always makes me wonder if we have learnt anything at all.


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