Definition of integration

THERE’S a painted tile in the kitchen of the old TRAMS building (Toowoomba Refugee and Migrant Support) on the edge of Toowoomba’s CBD.

It was created by a local Sudanese woman when the kitchen was first renovated. The tile has an image of the Australian flag with something along the lines of, “Thank you John Howard” written across it.

I always felt a little uncomfortable with this as we had tried to create a political and religious free zone in TRAMS considering the role that skewed politics and religion had created in creating successive waves of refugees.

But to no avail. Many new arrivals, but especially the Southern Sudanese could not help expressing their gratitude.

On almost any public occasion they would express just how grateful they were to John Howard, Amanda Vanstone, Phillip Ruddock and any other politician they believed had played a role in bringing them to freedom. Along of course with a big thank you to the people of Australia.

Walk the streets with former Mayor Di Thorley and you will observe young people hug her and thank her for welcoming them to the city and being the first to embrace them as they became Australian citizens. There are usually tears all round.

It’s not a party political thing. I am sure that Labor pollies Kerry Shine and Senator Claire Moore both have many of the same stories to share.

Going back to the 19th century, at our worst our political leaders have used fear and migration to their own ends.

At our best our political leaders have acted in a bipartisan way recognising the extraordinary courage of the refugee journey and offering vulnerable people another crack at life.

One of the touchstones of this approach has been a non-discriminatory migration policy. That is we do not decide who can enter our country and join their lives with ours based on race, religion or cultural background.

There has already been way too much spoken and written around socalled ethnic gangs making the streets unsafe in Melbourne.

Politicians of every persuasion have every right to question policing and law and order policies. But the ethnic background of young offenders is irrelevant.

That’s not an opinion. Researchers consistently around the world including our own Australian Institute of Criminology have found that a person’s ethnicity or race has no bearing on whether or not they will commit a crime.

If we are going to report the racial background of one group of offenders we need to report on the racial backgrounds of all offenders.

Last week former Prime Minister Tony Abbott went beyond the race baiting media bites from down south and called into question our long standing non-discriminatory migration policy. Referring to arrivals from Africa he stated, “I guess the big question though is: why do we store up trouble for ourselves by letting in people who are going to be difficult, difficult to integrate?”

The same week that Mr Abbott was making his ill-informed comments a local young man took to the stage at a graduation ceremony in Brisbane. Ayii Keer graduated with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at Queensland University of Technology.

Ayii is the the youngest child of Merry Atong and Machar Keer. The family arrived in Toowoomba 19 years ago and I cannot think of a better definition of integration.

Merry and Machar first came to Australia as humanitarian entrants fleeing civil war in South Sudan. They were pioneers in terms of refugee resettlement in Toowoomba, basing their family here and working very hard to make a new life.

They are active members of the community and belong to St James Anglican Parish in Toowoomba. They both are in full-time employment coming up to long service leave at a local abattoir.

This couple purchased their first house in 2003 and now owns it outright. They purchased a second house in 2008 and now owns this one too.

All five of their children have gone to university and those who have completed study are in full-time work.

Maybe one day our city can create its own tile of gratitude to thank those who have made this place their home.

Toowoomba isn’t perfect. We don’t always get it right, but we have hundreds of positive stories like this to share.

To find out more come to our Regions of Welcome Conference on August 13 and 14.