Sudanese refugees: The year the doves got smart (includes Andrew Hamilton's reply to critics)

This is a disappointingly superficial and at times illogical analysis in support of a flawed policy shift.

As someone who participated in programs for the education of unaccompanied minors from IndoChina back in the early 1980s, my experience is nothing like that alleged here by Andrew Hamilton. Where's the empirical evidence that "many withdrew from schooling and became involved in petty crime"? And how many is 'many'? Or is just another example of ethnic slander to justify a policy change?

Furthermore, if it was indeed the case that "it was recognised that they needed more systematic support...and better structures of support were quietly put in place", would it not be valuable to note the outcome of that improved level of services before concluding that a reduction in the numbers of unaccompanied minors was justified? After all, that was Andrew Hamilton's starting point: "The earlier experience of Indochinese refugees might be illuminating in this respect." Let's really analyse that experience rather than make mere assertions about it.

Andrew Hamilton is supporting the unwarranted leap in the Government's argument from (a) some people are having trouble settling in (let's accept that's true for the moment); to (b) the best course of action is to cut them out of the program. Yet Mr Hamilton is aware that the issue may be the paucity and quality of settlement services and the requirement to do more in that direction.

Finally, and more importantly, this is not just about an instrumental argument about what would 'work' best, is it? Surely there's a strong argument that refugees should be chosen on the basis of greatest need, not who is going to fit in easiest. Surely the need principle is closer to the core argument for having a refugee program at all.


And a PS: I for one can do without the jingoist self-congratulations about how proud we can all be that "governments have rarely targeted refugee communities for political gain." That's bumkum! Where was Mr Hamilton during the shameful era of vote-winning allegations about queue-jumpers and chilldren-overboard, and sexual abuse in detention? Surely his memory is not that deficient?

Kevin Andrews has acted correctly-by seeking proper simulation of refugees--he has a deep thinking rational approach to ministerial matters

The dove/rabbit analogy is neither clever nor helpful. Does Hamilton mean that in view of an injustice we are to sit on the fence and bill and coo ie do nothing and Andrews will magically lose (deservedly) his job?? Doesn't fidelity to Catholic social justice principles and our humanity demand that we "proclaim by word and deed the Gospel message of love and justice: to denounce existing injustices; and to recall, to keep recalling, the ethical principles and norms that should govern the establishment of a just social order."(Pedro Arrupe)

Hamilton's piece is a whitewash of the Howard government's disgusting political opportunism:"With a federal election imminent, the case has prompted claims that the Government is using Sudanese refugees to play a race card, a claim Prime Minister John Howard rejects as a "contemptible suggestion". However, new data from the 2006 census supplied to Inquirer reveals that a swag of marginal electorates also appear in census data as seats with the largest Sudanese communities in each state. The seats include marginal Liberal electorates that would be certain to fall on present opinion polling -- including Moreton in Queensland -- but also key Labor marginals such as Parramatta in NSW and Isaacs in Victoria that may be vulnerable if a strong campaign is run. These are the seats that could be the difference between the Coalition retaining government and going into Opposition." (The Australian 6-10-07)
Why not simply suggest the obvious - that the government take responsibility for its collusion in the creation of the great human tragedy in Iraq and expand its refugee quota at this crucial time given over 1.5 million are now living in Syria, and over 1 million refugees inhabit Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, and Turkey.

Can we really take seriously the Australian government's sudden concern for Burmese refugees when it's done virtually nothing over the past decade to alleviate the strain of more than half a million Burmese refugees and asylum seekers in neighboring countries AND refuses asylum to the 8 (Muslim) Burmese it detains on Nauru.

Finally, the government says the refugee quota of 30,000 is filled annually, but it doesnt pay for the airfares to Australia. Where do 30,000 refugees get the funds??? Or is the filled quota another myth ?

Africa is a continent of many nations, with people of many ethnicities and diverse circumstances. Using the term "African Refugees" glosses over this and is liable to "dog whistle" those in our society inclined to judge people by what they look like, in ill-informed, racial ways. It is a danger better avoided.

I am disappointed by Andrew Hamilton's article. It is naive to suggest that Government's dont' target refugee groups for political gain. Also I would have thought that any article by a Catholic thewologian (which I think Andrew is) should be couched in theological language. To me his argument fails the common sense theological test, which is that any government decision must pass the "love thy neighbour" test.

Not sure I can see where you are coming from here Andy. While I disagree that you are attempting to be an apologist for the Federal Government, I think your dove/dog analysis is confusing.

My thanks and apologies to the correspondents who have made it abundantly clear to me that what I intended to say was not clearly said. Perhaps I can best respond by returning to my argument in a more discursive way.

My article was an attempt to respond to the publicity aroused by Mr. Andrews’ comment that the cut in the quota of African refugees reflected their failure to settle into Australia. The remarks and the publicity they received raised two questions, both ethical:

1. How ethically sound has been and is Australia’s off-shore refugee programme, including particularly the way in which refugee quotas have been determined?

2. What ethical principles should govern the way in which governments speak of refugees, and the way in which those of us concerned for refugees speak of governments?

I believe that the ethical criterion that should be decisive in both cases is, as Frank Golding said, what is the needs or the good of refugees. Considerations based on political advantage, the prejudices found among Australians or difficulties in resettlement should not be decisive. The first should not even be canvassed.

By those standards I maintain that in general we Australians can generally be proud of our off-shore refugee programme. It could certainly be larger, and under the present Government settlement has been inadequately supported. But the overriding criterion by which off-shore refugees have been allocated places in Australia has been on the basis of need. Specifically, I believe that, despite the minister’s comments, the Department had actually arrived at changes in the quotas next year on the basis of need. They had put weight on the needs of refugees from Burma and Iraq. It is surely an agonising decision to draw up quotas knowing that every refugee accepted, whether from Africa, from Burma or from Iraq, will mean that another refugee, also in great need, will not be accepted. Changes to quotas need widespread consultation and bipartisan support. They have generally had both.

That governments speak well of refugees and encourage the wider community to welcome them generously is also demanded by the good of refugees. Since large numbers of refugees began to come to Australia after the 1939-45 war, governments have generally behaved well when speaking of off-shore refugees. I see in this too a reason for pride. The present minister’s comments about people who came to Australia as off-shore refugees are an aberration, although they are in keeping with the Government’s equivocal language about immigrant communities, particularly when they are from Muslim countries.

Whether we should speak or keep silent is also a decision that has an ethical component. If we are motivated by the desire to support refugees, the criterion for our decision must be whether silence or speech will better help refugees. As my story suggested, I believe that to respond to ministerial provocation by beating up on the Government simply lengthens and intensifies the furore, gives a voice to the vicious, increases the fear and outrage of the communities affected, and wins political support for those who first stir the pot. If this is so, it is difficult to see how it is in the interests of the refugees to engage in public debate. Better to dismiss the provocation as one of the games that children play, and to concentrate our energies on supporting the communities quietly.

This is what I wanted to say. I should also make explicit what was left implicit, namely that praise and pride should be confined to Australia’s off-shore refugee programme. They should not extended to our treatment of on-shore asylum seekers. Successive governments have mistreated on-shore asylum seekers and spoken abusively of them. Even when they are found to be refugees, they have their future put on hold. Their good has always been subordinated to more abstract and sometimes more cynical ends. This is ethically indefensible.

Finally, I should respond to Frank Golding’s question about the treatment of unaccompanied Vietnamese minors. He criticises my account on two grounds – questioning its accuracy, and denying that the government should be praised for limiting numbers in order to facilitate resettlement. In the context of the argument of my article, the second criticism is the more serious

My evidence for the account I gave is anecdotal. At the time I spoke often with committed Department employees responsible for promoting the settlement of unaccompanied minors. What I described is what I understood them to say of their recognition that a group of refugees experienced problems and of dealing with it. I was interested in this group because I had seen their great needs in the Thai camps and was suspicious of what the Department might be up to. The questions that Frank raises about the accuracy of my account therefore stand.

But assuming for the moment that what I heard is true, I would still argue that what the Government did was morally legitimate precisely because it served best the needs of refugees. The good of refugees cannot be identified simply with their need for resettlement. Nor can a refugee policy consist simply of accepting the greatest number of people we can admit. It must also work to ensure the conditions under which they can live with dignity and have the opportunity to take responsibility for their lives. As I understand it, these conditions were under threat for some minors who came to Australia. Part of the Government’s response was rightly to seek ways to improve substantially the support made available to them. I would argue that in such circumstances it was also justifiable to adjust the number of unaccompanied minors in order to put in place the necessary support systems.

This point is not simply of hypothetical or of historical interest. Unaccompanied minors without strong support are vulnerable to the harsh policies of subsequent governments. The severe laws passed by this government have meant that too many refugees who arrived in Australia twenty years ago face deportation to countries with which they have no real association. They became involved in drugs and eventually had their visas cancelled on character grounds. The tragedies of refugees do not always end with their resettlement.

I think Andrew Hamilton, in his long "discursive" response to comment, still misses the point that many of the comments were making. It is not Kevin Andrew's decision to shift the source of refugees from Africa to other places that has generted such heat but the reasons he gave for that decision, i.e., that African refugees have trouble fitting-in and that they are over-represented in crime statistics. The first is arguably not a valid reason, and the second is demonstrably untrue. One can only conclude that Kevin Andrews is either incompetent (probably true) and/or deliberately loose with the truth (probably also true) and/or unwittingly racist (probaly also true). And Kevin Andrews is supposed to be a Christian?

The problem with quotas is that it is hogwash used to lull us into thinking that this government is actually helping "those in the most need" when in reality we only help those who can help us. Frank Brennan has addressed this a gazillion times as has Malcolm Fraser.

There are 20 million refugees today and we helped to create the newest 4.5 million in the largest stampede around or out of a country since WW11 and we have not done a single thing about it.

The stupid quota is a miserable 6,000 of those 20 million or 0.0003% of them and they have their airfares paid. For the last 5 years we have 'taken' 6,000 humanitarian people who suffer human rights abuses or so we are told.

In reality this program is now used soley for the purpose of reuniting the families we have deliberately kept apart for up to 11 years, even from the two countries we have bombed to bits and occupied for the last 6 years.

We spent about $3 billion locking up a few thousand people to pretend that the above program was all moral and righteous but in fact it is neither when we use inflexible criteria against people who have been in camps in third countries for as long as 20 years in preference to those who have escaped a few weeks ago.

We could airlift 15,000 Iraqis and Afghans every year for 10 or 20 years if we so chose but we can't be bothered.

We rely on a mean quota.

Andrew's argument is flawed in that he ignores the way that Kevin Andrews put his case to the public - implying that Sudanese refugees are more likely to be involved in gangs and crime in general, which is simply not true. He's stirring up xenophobia to try to win some last minute votes from the extreme right wing and completely ignoring his responsibilities as immigration minister in the process. It make me sick.

Hi am Faisal Said Somali and refugee so i ask Australian government to help us not to hate refugees because we left our country with a reason.