Consultations Homepage || Meeting Notes: 27 August 2003
Consultation with Migrant Resource Centre staff hosted by Canterbury-Bankstown MRC, 27 August 2003
The meeting was chaired by Mr Jon Soemarjono, Chair of Canterbury-Bankstown MRC, and attended by 10 staff from various Sydney MRCs. Omeima Sukkarieh and Meredith Wilkie (notes) attended from HREOC.
1. What are your clients’ experiences of discrimination and vilification?
“Is there a need to make communities aware of discrimination? They must have come across discrimination of some sort at one time – whether it is at the workplace, the playground, the street or whatever. But they don’t usually talk about it because they don’t understand it or because they don’t see it as something they should do something about. Or they just sweep it aside as something that is not important. Should community workers be talking about these issues in the community and training people to recognise discrimination? Is it our responsibility? I believe there is a lot of discrimination but we don’t have time to do it. Can we prevent it? Is it something we can educate our people?”
“A lot of discrimination is hidden, it’s not overt, it’s very subtle. It’s hard to prove it. But the signs are there and you know it’s discrimination. Some Muslim women have asked me if anything could be done about discrimination at work – because they’re wearing the scarf. I didn’t really know what the answer was. So it’s really very difficult when you can’t prove it – how can you advocate?”
“There’s always going to be racism – throughout the whole world. It’s a matter of managing it rather than aiming to have a country where no-one ever has a racist thought pop into their heads.”
“Sometimes things are perceived as discrimination and vilification but they may not be. It can be a fine line. Sometimes things are obviously discrimination, but you can’t prove it.”
At school
“Islander kids do pick on the Lebanese kids and vice versa. But what they’ve got in common is that they’re minority kids who all experience discrimination. What we’re trying to do is get them to make those connections; to understand that by doing that to another kid, it’s the same as what they’re experiencing. I think that’s why they do it – pick on others because of the pain of discrimination.”
“Kids are facing discrimination from their teachers as well.”
“With the kids, they get verbal abuse, they spit on them, and sometimes they get physical abuse as well. The kids find it difficult to voice it out just because they think nothing is going to happen anyway so why should I say it. They are reported to the teachers but nothing happens.”
“Schools won’t deal with racist incidents properly or make them public because it affects the profile of the school. They lose enrolments. A lot of violence that’s happening in the school playground isn’t made public. They keep it under cover to cover their backs.”
Participants referred to their experiences in schools up to a decade earlier. “Eight years ago we had 97% Arabic students in a Bankstown school but I was amazed at the level of ignorance and intolerance by the staff. They had so little information, or so little that they sought out.” “We were never encouraged to think we were going to go to Uni. We were directed into vocational education. So it was never envisaged that we would want to try and improve ourselves.”
Policing
One participant told of a community member in Blacktown. He is a French speaking medical doctor trained in Africa who is finding it very difficult to obtain work in Australia. His son was recently bashed in the playground causing bleeding from the ear. The father first went to the perpetrator’s family home but no-one there wanted to say anything. The incident was then reported to the police. The police asked whether there were any witnesses. They refused to make an arrest because they had not themselves witnessed the assault. “Eventually he let everything go because they were not prepared to help.”
“If you look at the police – for years we’ve known that we need people who are sensitive to Aboriginal issues or ethnic issues. Still it’s really difficult. The people that get in, an intake of maybe bicultural people, bilingual people, they’re isolated in that organisation.”
At home
One participant told the story of a Lebanese client who is a Department of Housing tenant.
“She has three children: a daughter of 21 and two boys who are 19 and 17. They’re a handful. They’re quite boisterous. They’re young men no different to any other young men. The house this family is in is leased from a private owner by the Department of Housing. So they’ve placed this family in a street where they’re surrounded by private owners. Over the past year and a half two of her neighbours have basically undertaken a campaign to get rid of this family. They knew what they had to do. They record almost every movement that they make. So now the Department is trying to evict them. They sent a stack of evidence – pages and pages. These boys – their friends come over, they hang out by the car, they might be up a bit late but nothing really out of the ordinary. But the neighbours ring the police every time and the police obviously have to attend. So there’s a record of 40 police visits over the last few months but no arrests. It’s harassment. The police have written saying they’ve got concerns about that address but that’s because they get called out all the time. The mother’s trying to keep the house together and she’s getting sicker from the stress of it. It’s a really dreadful situation.
“About nine months ago the Department was considering a transfer for this family. The Department’s own client service officer concluded ‘these people aren’t doing anything wrong; their neighbours are basically harassing them’. But he knocked back the transfer because he thought the situation would not be different in any other place.”
2. What is being done to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
St George MRC held a workshop on anti-discrimination for Arabic women jointly with Al-Zahra women’s association.
In September 2003 St George MRC jointly with Rockdale City Council and St George Police offered a half day seminar for service providers called ‘Understanding Arabic Speaking and Muslim Communities in the St George Area’..
Another project was for young people more generally – not only Arabic-speaking background youth but also South Pacific Islander youth and others. Following a couple of consultations they developed a theatrical piece about discrimination with the young people doing the writing and acting.
Government strategies and projects
The NSW Department of Housing is very involved in ‘Better Futures’. This NSW Government strategy is for 9-13 year olds and is all about young people participating and raising their self-esteem. It is a preventive strategy which addresses the image of young people in the community. [Information about Better Futures and other NSW Government strategies for young people can be accessed via this website: http://www.youth.nsw.gov.au/what_the_government_is_doing_for_youth]
3. What are the underlying causes of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination and what strategies are needed?
Concerning government services generally
“The strategy of mainstreaming has short-changed us. People disappear in the bureaucracy. There are no longer any identified positions. Mainstream services are still not catering for people’s needs. There’s still a lot of work to be done in sensitising services to deal with us and make sure we’re getting what’s due to us.”
“The only place that’s available for NESB people to get a holistic approach to advice or referral is the MRCs. The bureaucracies divide people– a person is told ‘you belong to Health; you belong to Housing’; there’s no holistic coverage. But a lot of people’s problems are multiple.”
“The community has been calling on Centrelink for years to improve its service and sensitisation of staff. When I was doing case work – quite a few years back - 30% of my cases were Centrelink/Social Security problems – including people not getting their entitlements. We had so many problems just getting them to listen and take things seriously.”
Another participant was more positive about the more recent progress made by Centrelink.
“We’ve actually come a long way with Centrelink – our local one. They used to be so difficult. There was no communication, no understanding. Everything we threw at them, they threw it back. There was no resolution. But now we’ve got a regional Multicultural Advisory Committee which meets every second month. That’s community workers and Centrelink workers. There has been a lot of progress. Any difficulties we have are quickly sorted out. The Multicultural Service Officers are really excellent. We can access them at any time and they are very quick to respond.”
“It would be really good to have models of things where things work; models of success. If something works [like the Centrelink committee] then we could use that.”
“My only concern is that there are good things happening, but it’s usually an individual who’s pushing it. Why doesn’t it happen systemically?”
“I think systems – bureaucracies – let many people hide. They hide and are anonymous behind their positions. Then they don’t do anything if they can avoid it.”
Concerning education
“Multicultural education has been cut back. All the resources and workers we had 10 years ago are practically non-existent now. Unless someone is really familiar with the topic, they’re not going to teach it effectively. Muslim and Arab education workers aren’t in senior positions.”
“It’s extremely important that students be educated in anti-discrimination laws.”
“Even just bringing out the issue of racism.”
“Multicultural Day is not enough.”
“It’s just for food.”
“Racism at school is at least as serious as bullying.”
“It’s so inconsistent. You see one school doing some really fantastic work. In the next suburb, with the same amount of NESB kids, another school will be doing nothing and they get away with it. Opportunities for those kids are lessened; those families suffer; everyone’s behind the eight ball.”
“Even the government is a bully. The government bullies community organisations. Saying to them – if you don’t shut up then we’ll take your funding away. It’s endemic. I don’t see how kids are supposed to take the lead against it. This is the tactic they see the government using.”
“Education is really important, especially for kids. I overheard some kids talking about an Indonesian girl and saying she’s a cannibal. Not understanding the culture – and that kind of criticism – is a kind of racism. If the children understood a bit more, they would get on much better together. And not just for the children. Even some mainstream [government] staff can’t understand other cultures.”
“It also should be made very difficult to discriminate in housing or employment or whatever. It needs to be instilled in people that this doesn’t happen.”
“Giving education to the adults is fine. But looking at the long term, within the next 20 -25 years, the children will grow up to copy the adults. Let’s also target the children to educate them properly about how to see the similarities in other kids.”
“These messages should be incorporated and integrated in education rather than a special lesson being created.”
“But if it’s only taught at school this can be undermined by hostile parents.”
“The education system is failing but the community is still a possibility. I think the only way is to bring people together quite locally and then spin out from that. The funded community organisations won’t be around much longer. While we’re still around why don’t we try to generate in the community a sense of appreciating each other. People will so long as they get to talk to each other. How do we get people to be interested rather than afraid of difference? We need to get people to recognise each other as human beings.”
“Among the Arabic-speaking community there is religious division. It’s true of all communities but in this case it’s very strong. That makes it more difficult for outsiders to help if the community itself is divided.”
Concerning public housing
In discussion of the above-mentioned case of alleged neighbourhood harassment of a Lebanese family it was suggested that the local town or city council should play a role in mediating such situations.
“Community harmony is a Council thing too. They need to work together with the Department of Housing.”
It was suggested that the Department of Housing should have ensured that the neighbourhood would accept a Lebanese family before renting the house from its private owner and placing that family there. There was a shared sense that the department does not make these kinds of checks much less prepare neighbours to accept a DoH tenant in their street.
“You could lobby the Council to put pressure on the Department. To the Department of Housing each case is a number. They don’t take the care. When something happens it’s easier to get rid of that tenant. But they’re people who genuinely need the Department of Housing.”
It was also suggested that the State Ombudsman might play a role as a watchdog holding State government departments accountable, or the police or a Lebanese youth worker might have intervened.
Concerning recognition of overseas qualifications
“One client from Pakistan – he was quite senior – about 50. He’d worked in computers for about 15 years. He couldn’t get any interviews. His complaint was that it seems like the Australian government brings skilled people here based on the points system then leaves them to their own devices.”
“There used to be a lot more services. Skillshares used to try to help migrants but they’ve been killed off.”
“Overseas qualifications have always been wasted, though, regardless of the services. The assessment of skills for the purpose of migration to Australia is easier to pass than assessment for work once the person is in Australia. Employers look for local experience. They won’t employ them without it.”
Concerning local government’s role
“Canterbury City Council has a Multicultural Advisory Committee. The MRC is a part of it. We applied for [Living in Harmony] funding for an inter-faith project involving all the religious leaders of the area to promote harmony and clear all these mysteries of racism.”
“The structures are already there with all these Multicultural Advisory Committees. Community safety is a big buzz word in local government. And that involves everybody. It doesn’t just involve one group. I think that’s something you can work this into – ie we’d be much safer if we felt better about each other. If we’re not all scared of everything we’ll be a lot better off.”
In conclusion
“We have to look at the communities themselves and also the other communities and work together. It needs a common effort. It’s impossible just to rely on the work of one particular agency or organisation. The government must play an important role because they have the resources and the power.”
