There are different types of migrant folklore that I’ve encountered in my life. There are the tales narrated by my parents and other families – their migration, the very real and painful struggles that entailed, the loneliness of being detached from family, friends and the culture you grew up with, and the ongoing battle to maintain aspects of that culture in a society that compels you to assimilate.
Another is the lore of the accepting non-migrant –they have no problem with you being in the same country and will try to find points of connection. To them, migration is a success story.
But they are often drowned out by another, less progressive viewpoint. This is the migrant lore fed to us by some people in positions of power and wealth, as well as everyday racists who see migration as a blot on an enlightened society, a problem to be solved so that the real members of society can move forward with ease.
There are the tales narrated by my parents and other families – their migration, the very real and painful struggles that entailed, the loneliness of being detached from family, friends and culture you grew up with.
and influence consistently demand loyalty that hasn’t been betrayed, and only when it comes to migrants.
, we migrants are hell-bent on destroying the adopted country. Immigration and a ‘big Australia’ population plan – and therefore immigrants – are responsible for society’s ills. People should be frightened of migrant populations by default, because too many migrants make Australia an unsustainable country, and take away from everyone else’s ‘lucky country’ lifestyle. Immigration is bad, migrants – the product of immigration – are not welcome and are an uncontrollable, uncertain ‘Other’.
With these simplistic and limiting motifs colouring migrant stories, we need to acknowledge the very real PR problem migrants in western countries, particularly Australia, face.
The migrant image is a negative one. It’s one that suggests a lack of progress, a slowing down through letting people in, rather than a heightening of potential and the flourishing of a nation. The negative migrant image also implies that migrants pillage limited native resources and take jobs from Australian-born citizens and don’t give anything back to or grow/benefit the country in any sustainable way.
With these simplistic and limiting motifs colouring migrant stories, we need to acknowledge the very real PR problem migrants in western countries, particularly Australia, face.
I often find myself ruminating on how immigrants are held up like a bogeyman blocking the pathway to prosperity for the new country.
It’s a pervasive image and one that hasn’t seen improvement over the years. As children of migrants have graduated into adulthood – many of us educated, working, paying our taxes and generally contributing positively to society in a multitude of ways – the status of migrants hasn’t really softened. If anything, our successes make us appear more threatening to a society that struggles with its multicultural population.
Nary a day goes by that the question of migrants doesn’t appear in our public discourse. Often, it’s the result of a politician fear-mongering about the threat of Muslims and the ‘swarms’ of migrants descending on our country, loaded with issues, only a little money, and bag-loads of ambition to steal jobs and take over the country.
I often find myself ruminating on how immigrants are held up like a bogeyman blocking the pathway to prosperity for the new country.
We suffer from a huge amount of poverty consciousness in Australia – the feeling that there is never enough, or that what does exist will be usurped by interlopers who come bearing sad stories but also bad intentions.
If it’s not that migrants are being told they don’t belong, they’re reminded that their gratitude for being here should somehow be greater than that of people who ‘grew here’.
This is all part of the language of migrant lore as told by non-migrants. It should be noted that these people are never the traditional owners of this land. They, too, are descended from migrants, but this breathtaking hypocrisy seems to be a minor fact when talking about who has the right to be here.
The language surrounding migrants is an important element to interrogate because it causes separation among Australians. You see, there are migrants and then there are ‘ordinary Australians’. On more than one occasion, I’ve pondered what an ‘ordinary Australian’ looks like – is he or she ever a migrant or child of migrants? Or are they the ‘typical working Aussies’ who just want a fair go?
No one has ownership of being a hard worker but work seems to be at the heart of the migrant gripe. It’s something that consistently confounds me, having heard many times the kind of stress my parents have endured over the years as foreigners in Australia. They didn’t just work hard, they had to work harder to get a leg up. Nothing was ever handed to them. So why do we keep repeating this inane untruth that migrants are riding a free train to the good life?
Why do we keep repeating this inane untruth that migrants are riding a free train to the good life?
In a time when nationalism seems to outweigh good citizenry, and when identity is sharpened and in focus, it’s getting harder to think of migrants in any way that’s positive. Spoken about and of as though they have no voices, experiences or goodness to offer their adopted society, we are not richer for endorsing such painfully limited ideas.
It’s easy to forget that so many migrants to Australia have inhabited the country longer than some of the people who try to humiliate them out of the country. And there is so much we can learn from the experiences of migrants.
