When one of your colleagues in his thick Delhi accent baldly states ‘There’s too many Indians here” – you know there is an adjustment to be made on the make-up of Australia’s current migration policy settings. We were watching two truck drivers idly chatting while their truck was being unloaded by others. They don’t appear to have been trained in assisting with the task of unloading to speed things up. I thought it wise not to comment. A similar sentiment came from an Indian born friend of ours (who came to Australia at four years old) while also surprising us with an apparent softening of their views towards Pauline Hanson. (Alongside a good proportion of the populace it would seem). Neither of these two good people can be accused of racism. Unsettled by the sudden change in Australian society, maybe? Yet thirty years ago, Hanson was targeting Aboriginal people and Asian migration. Now it’s Muslims and mass immigration in general. Who’s next?
I’ve never understood out and out racism and how it lies dormant in all society’s till triggered by a loudmouth populist like Hanson. In my line of thinking it’s usually about numbers. As we all know, it’s possible to get to know and like – even love – any individual, regardless of race, colour or creed. But a mass of ‘others’, less so. I’ve often considered that it’s usually a response when people under pressure feel they need to find a solution or at least someone to blame for the problems in their lives. Undoubtedly cost of living pressures and people’s struggles to make ends meet, sees them resentful of an apparently large number of easily identifiable ‘foreigners’. That nearly half the population of non aboriginal Australians are either ‘foreigners’ or related to one doesn’t seem to factor into their reasoning.
While it’s understandable that people can feel uncomfortable with this sudden and highly visible surge of sub-continent taxi drivers, truck drivers and shopping trolley collectors, there seems to be no balancing that with the less visible but equally important Doctors, nurses, software specialists and engineers who are probably similarly numerous. When an Indian born cardiologist or oncologist drives his or her Mercedes to work, mostly unseen by the population at large, it’s unlikely they suffer any resentment while treating patients grateful for their expertise. Muslims though lower in number – and many have been here for decades or longer – are nonetheless equally ‘visible’.
There also seems to be a lower but significant resentment to the recent surge in Chinese students. The sentiment bubbling just under the surface that they are taking up scarce university positions. They are also readily identifiable ‘foreigners’. But it’s not just the foreign looking foreigners who are drawing attention. In the Guardian today, there is a report on “County Coogee” where nearly 20% of the population claim Irish ancestry and you can’t apparently walk down the road without hearing an Irish accent. Though Coogee and surrounds have a history with Irish settlement since the mid 1800’s, the current rise in Irish migration came after the 2008 financial crisis when for some reason Australia really opened the door to the Irish. Also subsequently, after the ‘Covid catch-up’, which saw a huge rise in migration from across the world.
While the steep immigration rise is temporary and recent migration targets have been reduced, it still requires careful management and the government needs to show that the current migration policy is not an ad hoc ‘she’ll be right’ approach. While numbers have been cut significantly, what our politicians seem unable to do is explain migration policy or more importantly what is Australia’s population policy? If they grant visas based on projections around skills shortages, do they also factor in where they might live? If we already have a housing crisis like the rest of the developed world, what are they doing to house them without crowding out those already here? That has been an argument since the post war, which, thankfully was handled by a then abundance of land near the cities. Now that all that land has been gobbled up and less and less of us want to drive that far, what do our policy makers have in mind?
We can only hope that it is dawning on our politicians that cost-of-living pressures and resentment of ‘others’ though worrying, is manageable at current levels. But it is beyond irresponsible for the federal government not to note the rise in support for Hanson as a sign of great unhappiness. Like a vandal smashes a window to say ‘Look, this is how much I’m hurting’, Hanson’s apparent popularity is more of a cry for help from a struggling population than it is an attraction to racism. Whatever the federal government currently thinks it’s doing, it’s not enough. There are only minor improvements in the provision of adequate housing for one thing. It’s time they got serious, otherwise the below the surface discrimination and prejudice that Hanson represents today could become wider, more ingrained and harder to shift than it is already.