FREOVIEW – Fremantle's only daily

It is Australia Day long weekend, but I don’t want to talk about colonisation or invasion, but about immigration instead.

I want to acknowledge the continuous habitation by our First Nations People for some 65.000 years, but also want to celebrate the achievements of all those millions of migrants who made Australia their new home, be it by choice or circumstance.

I migrated to Australia in March 1982 and became an Australian citizen in December 1984. I have never regretted that decision. I loved this country from the first moment I visited in 1980, and that love has only grown. Even more so when I discovered Fremantle, my soul mate.

Sadly, immigration has become a political football for the far right and racists, who are unwilling to acknowledge how much most immigrants, their children and grandchildren, have contributed to our great nation.

We all together made Australia what it is today. A beautiful and peaceful country of abundance, of freedom and tolerance, and of ample opportunities for all who want to have a go.

Those who attack immigration, because of the recent Bondi Beach terrorists attack are wrong. Immigrants did not invent crime and religious madness. Immigrants did not invent intolerance, but immigrants did bring racism to Australia, when the first settlers failed to honour Indigenous culture.

Look around with an open mind and see who the people are who contribute strongly to our communities and serve our needs, in hospitals, as first responders, in our mines, on the oceans, and everywhere else in our society. Most immigrants work hard, because we came here to start a new life, a new future. It is in our own interest to try to be successful, to participate and to contribute. We want to make this great country even better, for the benefit of future generations.

Immigrants don’t take jobs away from other people. We fill the gaps instead. The most common response when applying for jobs in 1982 was “You don’t have Australian experience” or “You are over-qualified for this job.” When I arrived in Sydney I had 13 years experience as a photojournalist in Germany, but my first Aussie job was working as kitchenhand for $ 6.00 an hour.

In the 44 year I have lived here I have never been on the dole. I always worked, paid my taxes, and did not mind trying different jobs when there was not enough photography work.

The main issue with immigration is that some people do not integrate well. That needs to be addressed by our governments. It is not unreasonable to demand that immigrants learn to speak English. It is pretty daunting to start in a new country with a new language and culture, where most things are different from our home countries. It takes hard work, guts and dedication to reach out and try to become an Aussie, without losing one’s own culture. It is a lot less confronting to just hang out with people who speak your language, who have the same culture, religion and habits, but that creates immigrant hubs of people who are unwilling or unable to integrate.

But let’s not romanticise the past either. There are plenty of old immigrants right here in Fremantle, who have been here for many decades, but still don’t speak English very well. Ultimately it did not matter, because they significantly contributed, worked very, bloody hard and became successful business people or employees.

It has taken a long time, but are starting to get to know each other, all of us migrants who all spoke different languages, and we started to open up and reach out to our First Nations People, keen to listen and learn from them. We accepted that there is more than just the one way of life, and that many people behave, cook, talk, dress and think differently.

And we realised that while we are all very different, we are also very much the same. We all want to feel loved and respected, we all want to be successful, and we all want to feel cared for. We want to feel at home!

Immigration, multiculturalism and diversity are not the enemy! Most immigrants, like most people in the world, are good, contributing people.

The enemies of a respectful society are intolerance, ignorance, racism, and religious and political fanaticism.

On Australia Day let us for a few moments think about our checkered history, and let’s try to learn from the mistakes of the past, not repeat them!


Roel Loopers