Opinion

Migration experience illustrates we're all family

Migrants come in all shapes, colours and sizes. Some even come from New Zealand, writes Robert Hiini. 

I remember thinking my parents the most self-centred people in the world when they told my two sisters and me we were moving to Australia. I was 15 when we left Auckland to live in the Wait-A-While state, as we would affectionately come to know it.

And wait we did. My father had gone to Perth ahead of us on hearing that a state utility was looking for skilled workers. It was two months after we arrived before he was “given a start”; two months after he was told he had a job.

I can only imagine the crushing humiliation my parents felt, towards the end of those months, as they sold item after item at Cash Converters in desperation at that oft-delayed start; their slim savings having ebbed away to nothing.

Like so many emigrating New Zealanders, they were on the losing end of escalating house prices and a declining labour market back home. The best kind of life for their three kids, they thought, was somewhere else and a welcoming Australia provided the brightest prospects.

Much later, they learnt about government assistance they could have received to get them through those tough months. Such an idea would have been anathema to them, even if they had known about it.

Since 2001, New Zealanders have been ineligible for government benefits and fee-supported university places, and are only able to apply for citizenship after 10 years residence under their special category visa.

After decades of Kiwi “Bondi bludgers” such a change was understandable in weeding out non-contributers, even if the 10-year timeframe was and is a little harsh.

Queensland’s Courier Mail newspaper recently noted the increased incidence of New Zealanders seeking emergency financial assistance as well as the high number of new arrivals from earthquake-devastated Christchurch.

Like so many migrants, I am grateful to Australia and Australians for all the opportunities we have been afforded in our adopted country. As the son of migrants, I am grateful for the tenacity of my parents.

It is perhaps a little unfortunate that an official church statement on Migrant Sunday chooses to juxtapose the situations of some migrants with others.

“[Current practice] reveals inconsistencies in our migration policy; free movement between Australia and New Zealand, essentially open boarders for the highly skilled and tourists, but enforced mandatory detention on a number of asylum seekers who are left with no other option than a boat in order to find a sustainable livelihood.”

I much prefer the theme Pope Benedict chose for Migrant and Refugee Sunday; that of “One Human Family.”

The first moral category of persons, the pope says, is human.

It’s nice not to be the silent referent to other people’s description of migrants as “the marginalised” and “the oppressed”. I’m sure a lot of Australians – migrants and home grown alike – feel the same.

In our common humanity, Australians can share in the joys and travails of migrants, and migrants can share in theirs.

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