Immigration -- A Perspective from "Down Under" (LINK)

When I first traveled to Australia in the early 1980's, I found immigration here was tightly controlled -- driven by remnants of a "white Australia" policy.  I remember a Greek cab driver in Melbourne I met on my first business trip who said his life was ok here, but he always felt excluded -- an exclusion he expected he wouldn't find in the U.S. (knowing he was talking to an American).

Confirming that, I remember listening to a TV news report on Good Morning Australia about some salami found to have salmonella that had killed a number of people, but the report concluded that there were "no worries" because only Greeks and Italian immigrants ate that type of salami.  Having an Italian surname, I personally found I was treated well if recognized as an American, but much less well if thought to be an Italian.

Today in Australia you definitely see a society somewhat more open to immigrants.  A walk in downtown Sydney includes pedestrian passing of folks who are clearly immigrants -- mostly Asian, which is a source of much of Australia's trade these days -- pretty much all well-dressed business people.  But immigration at lower economic levels and for other ethnic and racial groups is still very limited and very controlled.

On arriving here I learned that a refugee boat headed here with asylum seekers is being blocked by the Australian government in an effort to divert them elsewhere.  The unstated inference being, "we don't want THOSE PEOPLE here."  At my first Sunday here at Mass, the pastor of Villa Maria Church (Fr. Kevin Bates S.M.) spoke eloquently about this fear of immigrants.

"There is a great deal of shouting for joy in the first reading today as God brings  the remnant of Israel, back to their own homeland.  The blind, the lame, women with child and in labour, God will comfort them all as he leads them back home.

   

As we read this, our world is awash with refugees fleeing from various wars in their homelands and from persecution at the hands of governments or other ethnic groups in their homelands.   A small trickle of these people is headed in our direction and we hear the sounds of fear and suspicion on all sides because these people may impact on  the way we are accustomed to living.

   

In the gospel we have the wonderful story of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus who has the courage to call out to Jesus in his need.  Because he is an embarrassment and rejected as an unworthy member of his community, the crowds  try to silence him, but he calls out all the louder. Finally he gets Jesus’ attention and pleads that his eyes may be opened.

  

Immediately his sight returns and he follows Jesus along the road.  In other words, he starts to live in the light of what he now sees.

   

Often when we are confronted with uncomfortable truths, we prefer not to see and we call out like the people in the gospel, trying to silence the desire for clearer sight, in case we happen to see differently and then have to change and respond.  Often when we are confronted with uncomfortable truths, we deny the truth its place and prefer to stay with our blindness, for then we don’t have to respond.

   

Often when we are confronted with the “inconvenient truth” to borrow Al Gore’s film title, we use anger, aggression, name-calling to save ourselves from having to respond.

  

The recent small increase in asylum-seekers looking to come to Australia, is one instance of such an inconvenient truth."

In the up-coming immigration debate, I hope America will meet the expectation of that Greek cab driver of being a country that welcomes the immigrant.