The theme of this year’s Harmony Week is the same as last year: “Everyone Belongs”. It is an important message of inclusion within a society where some of our political leaders are intent on dividing the population for their own electoral advantage. But it does assume diversity within the existing population, and perhaps our focus at this time should be on how we achieved this diversity in the first place.
Whilst managed migration programs have helped to increase cultural diversity over the years, they also come with discriminatory barriers, such as the blanket ban on people with disability being granted migrant status. Arguably the most successful boosts to our diversity, and those which have delivered the most value to our society overall, have come from our welcoming of refugees after world or regional conflicts. Witness the wholesale change in our demographics following World War 2, and our acceptance of refugees from Vietnam: most if not all traveling across oceans to get to Australia. There is no argument that these populations have significantly contributed to Australia’s emergence as a truly modern society with rich cultural roots to add to its own ancient traditions of First Nations people, and up until recently at least have helped to enhance our relations with our neighbours in the region and across the world.
This Sunday as we celebrate this diversity we should, at the same time, stop to consider how the federal government of Australia is complicit alongside other of the world’s wealthiest developed nations in ignoring the plight of refugees fleeing from conflict all around the world, and now including Ukraine. Many of these refugees have been born and/or raised in refugee camps, or marooned in detention centres, and thus have never experienced the sanctuary of being a citizen of a country where they are guaranteed safety and basic freedoms. And it is our governments’ policies that condemn those who seek to flee the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and other places, and the atrocities being committed in Afghanistan, to this marginal life “sans papiers” with no prospect of any future for themselves of their families.
As well as joining the call of the Uniting Church and others for greater compassion toward asylum seekers and refugees, the Engadine congregation will continue to build bridges with civil society groups which provide support and resources directly people who are living in the community on temporary bridging visas. The founder and co-Chair of the group Amiculus, Zoe Bell, has asked us to consider the situation of those detainees recently released from the Melbourne Park Hotel, the terms of whose visas entitle them to no welfare assistance and little support. Providing access to the basics to people on similar visas here in NSW is the core of Amiculus’ work, and as it works wholly on voluntary donations does require ongoing support from the community.
Also, in the lead-up to the federal election, we need to continue to lobby the main political parties, and increasingly independent candidates, on a more compassionate approach to re-settling those who have lost everything due to conflict or oppression. The legacy of our previous welcoming approach to refugees and asylum-seekers has led to our ability this week to celebrate Harmony Week, and it would be a proud legacy for Australia to show some direction to the world by taking the lead in settling people impacted by wars in Syria, Ukraine and abuses of freedoms in Afghanistan.
Michael Bleasdale, Community Engagement Officer
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