Ned K.
The latest United Nations report on the movement of people defined as refugees or asylum seekers claims that 45.2 million people were ‘displaced’ last year. 15.4 million were refugees, 937,000 were asylum seekers and another 28.8 million were ‘internally displaced people’, those forced to find refuge within their own country.
In Australia, there is an attempt by politicians and the corporate media barons to create a picture of Australia on the brink of invasion by hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in leaky boats, while their multinational finance capitalist masters continue the real invasion of every aspect of the Australian economy. (See article in winter edition of Journal of Australian Political Economy, "Restructuring of Corporate Ownership In Australia through the Global Financial Crisis").
According to the Parliament of Australia web site, in 2011-12 there were 14,415 asylum seeker arrivals in Australia. 48.6% arrived by air, 51.2% arrived by boat. More asylum seekers arriving by boat than by plane are granted refugee status due to legitimate persecution in their country of origin.
Australia is a developed country according to the United Nations and with far greater infrastructure and far more complex level of economic activity than developing countries. Yet where are the vast majority of refugees hosted? In developing countries according to the UN. Pakistan hosts 1.6 million, followed by Iran with 868,200. Eighty-one per cent (8.5 million) of refugees are hosted by developing countries.
Where Do Most Refugees Come From?
The three largest sources of refugees in 2012 were from Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq, both war ravaged countries where US imperialism and its allies (including Australia) have either invaded or interfered to the detriment of those countries’ national sovereignty and their people’s well-being.
What Happens When They Get Here?
Many recent refugees once in Australia live a precarious existence on various forms of working visas. The worst form of visas requires refugees to find continuous employment for two years to progress their visa status or face the real possibility of being turfed out of the country. This makes them an easy target for economic exploitation. It is not uncommon to find recent arrivals to Australia being classed as ‘self-employed’ in service industries for as little as $10 to $14 per hour. These workers usually have a sham employment arrangement (in terms of industrial law of the capitalists) where they are three or even four times removed in contractual arrangements from the big corporations who benefit most from their exploited labour power.
What Should Be Done?
These new workers in Australia are looking for people who they can trust and who can work with them appropriately to overcome their exploitative situation without placing unrealistic demands on them which leave them open to deportation.
They are forced to tolerate poor conditions of work not because they enjoy this situation but because they know they cannot win on their own.
They want to join with more established workers in this country and often have stories of struggle and endurance to tell that many of us will find unimaginable.
They are an important element of the working class and of the future of the struggle for independence and socialism, just as were migrant workers in previous periods of our history.
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