Our Dark Past Returns !

The Federal parliament is grappling with the task to toughen the criteria that intending migrants need to pass to become citizens of this country.  The aim is to ensure that those we welcome to these shores assimilate into the broader community and we seem to think that learning to speak the English language is critical to achieving that objective.   The proposal before parliament would impose a four year waiting period before new migrants could apply for citizenship and require proficiency in English and testing on the subject of " Australian values ".

This proposal has failed to get the numbers in the Senate after passing in the lower house.  It is opposed by both Labor and the Greens, and now the Nick Xenophon team has given the bill the thumbs down in its present form.

That requirement for English language proficiency will stir emotions in the broader community.  In the decades when the " White Australia " policy was in place we shunned the open rejection of applicants because of their skin colour and substituted a language test as the way of rejecting applicants that did not meet our colour criteria.

This language test was clearly designed to slant the result in the examiners favour.  It was not a test of English, but a test of any of the world languages chosen to apply to that particular applicant.  A person from Europe might be required to demonstrate proficiency in a little used language from the remote corners of the jungle in South America.   The failure rate was automatic for those the examiners set to fail.

After the second world war ended we received hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping the ruins of European cities and fleeing ahead of Communist advances.  Many arrived with just the clothes on their backs - and absolutely no knowledge of the English language.   For years we had adults struggling to make their wishes known - and the phenomenon of their kids acting as interpreters as they became proficient in both English and their parents home language.  Many migrant wives never managed to learn English and yet these families settled to become productive and loyal Australian citizens.

It is clearly ideal if incoming migrants are proficient in English and it speeds settlement and aids getting a job, but if it becomes the essential entry criteria we will rob this country of many brilliant minds who go on to establish enterprises and contribute to the national wealth.  There is a danger that this English test may be applied selectively.   Just like that testing back in the days of the White Australia policy.   It may be used to discriminate against those from countries that we do not favour.

Those earlier migrants struggling with the English language contributed greatly to the Australian lifestyle we enjoy today.  The Australian cuisine has expanded by many wonderful dishes and flavours and customs from all over the world are interleaved with our ever changing lifestyle.  We are an ever evolving nation and that evolvement is based on the changes that migrants bring.

Perhaps the difference between then and now is our adoption of " multiculturalism ".   We used to encourage migrants to learn English. Now we encourage them to retain their old language and join our multicultural world.   We need to be very careful with this piece of legislation.  We need to think long and hard about just what sort of Australia we hope to create for the future !