There are many misunderstandings of refugees’ contributions to life in Australia. Most of these are far from the truth. One of the major ones is that “they take our jobs”.
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The opposite is true. Many refugees take jobs others reject as too onerous or unpleasant. An example is work in abattoirs and the preparation of poultry for consumption - particularly relevant to Tamworth.
Closer to Armidale, we have tomato production at Guyra. Many workers from overseas are more prepared to cope with the temperature and humidity conditions.
We have been dependent on workers from overseas, including refugees, ever since World War II. An example is the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Without the thousands of manual workers who fled the destruction of their European countries, this would have taken much longer.
While many refugees contribute their hard labour to our country’s development and production, others contribute their knowledge, skills and professional expertise.
There are many outstanding examples of highly skilled and creative contributions to Australia. Such refugees or children of refugees include Les Murray (poet), Karl Kruszelnicki (scientist), Majak Daw (AFL), Anh Do (comedian, author and artist), Hieu Van Le (His Excellency Governor of South Australia). The last two came as “boat people” and that alone demonstrates their great courage and resilience.
Another common characteristic of refugees is enterprise. Perhaps the most outstanding Australian example of this is Frank Lowy. From poverty he rose to become the co-creator of the Westfield Shopping Centres.
Whenever a person or family moves into a town, that in itself creates work. Even if the person does not work, their very act of being here creates employment.
Refugees shop for food, they need accommodation, they buy clothes and TVs; children go to school, while some adults attend TAFE or UNE. All this has a direct employment creation benefit.
Far from taking our jobs, refugees actually contribute to our country including our town, by creating work. In the next Extra, I will write about refugee contributions to life in Armidale.