No ‘them and us’: hold out a friendly hand for new arrivals

Adjusting to a new country often isn’t as easy as it was for Kiwi-Tasmanian David McMillan

AS

an immigrant to Australia myself, I encountered no overt prejudice and no hostility.

That is because I came here from New Zealand and it was like getting on a bus and getting off at another city. People looked the same, people talked the same (sort of) and we all had basically the same values and lifestyle.

We eventually applied for Australian citizenship and became proud Tasmanian Australians, but we will also always be proud Kiwis who, quite naturally, support the Wallabies unless they are playing the All Blacks.

I can’t begin to imagine how an immigrant from a country that has different language, customs and dress would start to fit in to a culture like ours, especially those who have come from a country that is torn by war and genocide.

As a 70-year-old, I have seen other cultures be mistrusted, profiled, slowly accepted and eventually be embraced by the general populace. Among these are Chinese, Dutch, Italians, Croatians, Indians and many others, so it should come as no surprise that people from Muslim nations are being made to to go down the same path.

After saying that, there is a two-way street where those coming into a new society need to take positive steps to integrate. By that I don’t mean throwing off their, to us, strange garb.

That will come with time as babies born here and their babies grow up comfortable with our way of life and us with theirs.

For our part we as a new host nation need to understand the trauma of starting a new life and the need to congregate with others of similar upbringing and to hold out a friendly hand to those who would accept it.

The events of Friday in New Zealand should have shocked our two nations to the core because while we are suspicious of what we don’t understand, our common decency would forbid us to ever contemplate slaughtering men, women and children as if they were bugs to be squashed or video game icons that would miraculously get up and start again at the game’s conclusion.

I think the vile person who perpetrated this murder will live to regret his actions over a

very long time.

If nothing else, this incident should be a very sad wake-up call for politicians who need to set the scene for integration, as well as those who are able to help with the integration of new arrivals. This would not just be about giving people a bed and some money and leaving them to their own devices, but to work hand-inhand with education, both cultural and schooling, so language and other traditions cease to be an obstacle to friendship with the wider community, without asking for those to be discarded entirely.

There should be no “them and us” for those who wish to be a part of our society. There should only be us.

The “them” sobriquet should be reserved for the haters of this world, those that would tear at the fabric of our society.

It is very hard to do much about our born citizens except try to get them on the right path, one way or the other. There will always be some haters among us.

On the other hand, there is no need for us as a society to accept people coming into our lives who would try to do us or our loved ones harm.

They should have all their rights, given by us to live among us, removed, and be sent back to where they came from.

I am quite happy to include myself in that, because if I abuse the trust given me by Australia, I should not have the right to stay.

David McMillan was born in Invercargill in New Zealand and has relatives there and Christchurch as well as across New Zealand and Australia. Mr McMillan and his wife own and live at Tasmania’s Wayatinah Lakeside Caravan Park, which has visitors from all over the world.