On "the boat people"

Someone asked me the other day what I think about refugees, specifically the illegal immigrants that enter Australia on boats and are intercepted by Australian authorities. These last specifiers are important because they make this situation particularly unique. It’s no secret, and I consider this absolutely nothing to be ashamed about, that I entered Australia as a refugee from a war-torn country. I, however, find it difficult to form an opinion about the so-called “boat people” given that my family and I all entered the country legally on a comfortable passenger plane, were granted permanent resident status immediately on arrival, were escorted from the airport to a furnished and fully-stocked home in inner-city Brisbane, and received so much governmental support with negotiating a new country and a new language. The illegal immigrants I was asked about, although both refugees, are in a such completely different scenario that I find it personally hard to put myself in their shoes… And yet, so many people who are so much less qualified than even myself find it too easy to comment on “the boat people”.

A colleague once asked ‘why don’t illegal refugees from south-east Asia and other countries do what people from wealthier countries do?’ You know, just buy a plane ticket and come to Australia on tourist visas which they can then overstay and support themselves and escape the authorities however best they can. She suggested this would solve the issue of the Australian government having to process these illegal immigrants’ after-arrival applications to remain in Australia as refugees. Then Australian taxpayer’s money also wouldn’t be “wasted” on arresting and then housing refugees in detention centres, etc. Well, if you’re a citizen of certain countries, it’s actually quite difficult to get a tourist visa to Australia to overstay, and thus getting on a boat for illegal migration is much cheaper and easier despite all its inherent dangers. Well, this colleague suggested, why don’t the boats filled with illegal immigrants just get turned away or their passengers put on planes back to their own countries of origin before their stories/reasons for migration are heard. The reason for that is that would give the Australian government a bad human rights record… Oh yeah, it might actually be a violation of human rights.

So what do I know about refugees? I know that it must be a difficult decision to make to migrate to a country where the only certainty is that it’s not your own country (ideally for the better). When my family lived in El Salvador, people were migrating illegally into the surrounding countries, mostly northbound to the U.S.A. Around the time we left for Australia, the majority of people migrating illegally into the U.S.A. were leaving for the same reasons we were: seeking refuge from the hardships of war, the threats of death, and the intense poverty. Only a very very small minority were leaving “just for the hell of it”, and I believe perhaps no-one migrated illegally with the intention of hurting North-American citizens on their arrival. I also believe these broad categories/reasons remain true of all people who choose to migrate into another country. Why did my family migrate legally when others chose to do it illegally? Because we could. Why did others do it illegally when they could have done what my family did? Fear, lack of knowledge, I don’t know. I just don’t know. And I think that that’s the thing, that it is extremely hard to even imagine what it takes a human being to go through to make the choice where they consider it a lesser danger to hand over non-refundable money to an illegal human trafficker in order to board a shabby boat for a rough sea journey to a place you’ve never been to that speaks a language you don’t understand. How horrible must the other options have been?!

How do I feel about the “boat people”? A great curiosity to know their stories. And a wish that no person in this world had to suffer the hardships that lead most people to seek refuge in another country.