I came on a boat.... and no one cares
Asylum seekers and refugees have been a major focus of the recent political campaigns in Australia. Some of you might be sick of hearing in the news about 'boat people' and how exactly we turn them away (rather than thinking more about how we help these people in desperate need, desperate enough to get on a shonky boat to try and get to our shore). But what I don't believe we hear enough about is the hurdles refugees and asylum seekers face if/once they do become a part of our society.
It's not as if they get off the boat and walk straight into an awaiting house, with educational rights and some cash lying around to set them up for life.
They face some serious hurdles, to get and education, to get a job, and to not be worse off then they were in their own country.
In an SBS article titled Young migrants 'facing unprecedented challenges' Soo-Lin Quek talks of the traumas of refugees' pasts that can inhibit their ability to attentively concentrate in class (Siripala, 2013). Apart from this, most of these students have come from situations of interrupted education, even if they are 18 years old they may not have the adequate English skills to even fill out the form for University, so what then? How can they improve their situation if there is not suitable support for them?
But there are more hurdles then just attending an educational institute such as a school or university.
Robert Hattam and Danielle Every point out that refugees' experiences are largely "determined by the way refugees are though about, and represented in the public culture" (2010, 409). And many would argue that during the last decade of Australian politics refugees' have been portrayed as a negative issue, a pest that there seems to be no solution for. Oakes describes this form of politics as wedge politics, and in this regard defines wedge politics in terms of "creating resentment among a large group against a smaller one" (Hattam & Every, 2010, 412).
I think it quite clear that resentment is apparent, with names being thrown around like 'boat people' , 'queue jumpers' , 'terrorists' , and 'illegals' (Hattam & Every, 2010, 411).
Imagine going to a new school after fleeing your home country and not being wanted, hearing people whisper 'that kid came on a boat', it must create a dislike for the institution within the student.
So how can these people in need of our help get a fair go in an Australian education system where teachers need to teach in contrast to the 'popular' cultural belief of what refugees are. What resources are available for teachers unsure of how to help and teach their refugee students?
These hurdles represent significant challenges for not only refugees but also educators, something we all will hopefully become. If support networks do not become more readily accessible how can we expect refugees to gel into society and create a prosperous life for themselves. And if the community and government does not learn to accept that the refugee crisis is not ending anytime soon then they won't learn that implementation of networks, assistance and new procedures are necessary to equally and adequately educate refugees.
References
Thisanka Siripala, 19 September 2013, Young migrants 'facing unprecedented challenges', SBS News
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/17/young-migrants-facing-unprecedented-challenges
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/17/young-migrants-facing-unprecedented-challenges
Robert Hattam & Danielle Every, 2010, Teaching in fractured classrooms: refugee education, public culture, community and ethics, Race Ethnicity and Education, Vol 13 No 4, 409-424
AMANDA BROWN
I am very pleasure to see that refugee students have a new and happy experience in Australia. Australian school is a place where refugee children, get their first taste of a life wider than the parameters of their family unit, their local ethnic community and the gravity of their pasts. It is a place for them to experience being a child, and to grow into a young adult. A video I watched is ABC news correspondent Karen Barlow’s interview with a number of former child refugees.One girl said that Australia has given her the freedom that she always dreamt of.
ReplyDeleteAs I know that war, displacement and separation from family and community have severely disrupted education for Refugee students. Furthermore, many young people have spent prolonged periods of time in refugee camps or a mongst the local population of the host country with limited access to education. The worse is the ratio of girls attending school is low, often due to traditional cultural expectations which emphasise their domestic role and early marriage in order to provide dowry for the family(phillips, 2006) . These special ethnic identities make it much harder for refugee students to cope when they enter the main stream education system of Australia. In contrast to their past education experience, the Australian education system can become a huge challenge for refugee students to overcome(Lahoud, 2011). In addition to that, another huge problem is that there might be lost years of education. Remon Abdul-razaq, 17 years old, he found it hard to adjust to life in Sydney at first. ''The first day at school was a sad day, my brain wasn't working, I couldn't think'' Remon said.
Therefore, following the refugee students are accepted by Australian education system, simply having the right to an education is not always enough for those who experienced past trauma. They should be supported to adapt to a new life.
Reference:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-21/refugees-tell-of-their-childhood-plight-to-seek-protection/4771632
Phillips, A. (2006). What is culture? In Arneil, Barbara and Deveaux, Monique and
Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenberg, Avigail, (eds.) Sexual justice / cultural justice. pp. 15-29.
Melissa Lahoud(2011). Lessons to cope with trauma
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/lessons-to-cope-with-trauma-20110807-1ihiw.html