The Advertiser reported yesterday that there are 13 times as
many visa overstayers in Australia as there are asylum seekers in
detention. There are 4446 boat people in detention, but almost 60,000
people who arrive by planes, then overstay their visas - some by
decades.
But the people arriving by plane - who are mostly Chinese, American, British or Malaysian - just don't trigger the same gut reaction as asylum seekers in boats.
Of course, it would be easier if they all carried their passports and had neatly filled out their arrivals card in blue or black pen. Planes are neat. We've been on them. In our experience they are filled with people who enjoy a gin and tonic on takeoff, who speak English and slide their luggage obediently into the overhead locker. People arriving on planes might be business people, or backpackers, or tourists, or students.
They are, we imagine, people who slot neatly into a predetermined spot in Australian society. We're forgiving because even if they're only meant to be here for a couple of weeks, on the Gold Coast perhaps, and end up working cash-in-hand (tax dodgers!) for years we sort of think they're like us.
Boat people, on the other hand, are not like us. They're probably dirty and desperate and they want something from us - they want help.
We picture them as uniformly Middle Eastern. Many seem to believe they are uniformly Muslim.
This is where the fear comes in, the fear of the other, the challenge to Australian culture. As though every Australian is a Caucasian with a barbecue in the backyard, a Southern Cross tattoo, a Holden in the drive, ill-defined Judaeo-Christian values, a battler with cost-of-living woes and a house full of electronic gadgets.
Fears and Loathing on the high seas
Tony Shephard
But isnt that what the defination of being Australian is all about? Or have i got it wrong after all these years?
But the people arriving by plane - who are mostly Chinese, American, British or Malaysian - just don't trigger the same gut reaction as asylum seekers in boats.
Of course, it would be easier if they all carried their passports and had neatly filled out their arrivals card in blue or black pen. Planes are neat. We've been on them. In our experience they are filled with people who enjoy a gin and tonic on takeoff, who speak English and slide their luggage obediently into the overhead locker. People arriving on planes might be business people, or backpackers, or tourists, or students.
They are, we imagine, people who slot neatly into a predetermined spot in Australian society. We're forgiving because even if they're only meant to be here for a couple of weeks, on the Gold Coast perhaps, and end up working cash-in-hand (tax dodgers!) for years we sort of think they're like us.
Boat people, on the other hand, are not like us. They're probably dirty and desperate and they want something from us - they want help.
We picture them as uniformly Middle Eastern. Many seem to believe they are uniformly Muslim.
This is where the fear comes in, the fear of the other, the challenge to Australian culture. As though every Australian is a Caucasian with a barbecue in the backyard, a Southern Cross tattoo, a Holden in the drive, ill-defined Judaeo-Christian values, a battler with cost-of-living woes and a house full of electronic gadgets.
Fears and Loathing on the high seas
Tony Shephard
But isnt that what the defination of being Australian is all about? Or have i got it wrong after all these years?
