Good citizens and bad policies
I've previously written a few posts about the citizenship test and was just about to let the topic rest, until I read a wonderful opinion piece by Alice Pung, in the Age yesterday and felt that I had to comment. As a declaration of bias - Alice is a friend of mine, but the motivation for this comment is not our friendship but a shared experience of growing up in migrant families and communities.
When I looked at the citizenship test questions, I found them laughably easy. But that is because I have had the advantage of the best education, both at school and at university, during which I had the support of my family - my parents and my grandparents. Like Alice's parents they worked long hours and long weeks to make sure that their children could obtain the best education and the best prospects possible. The same applies to most migrant families I know. As the children of these migrant families we benefited from their support. We are now lawyers, doctors, accountants, vets, teachers, you name it. We all know what the floral emblem of Australia is, we have all heard of Donald Bradman and most of us can name the first PM of Australia. Does that make us good citizens? Or are we good citizens because we do something productive with the opportunities we were given?
I suspect that one of my parents would not pass the citizenship test. My elderly grandparents certainly would not. Quite a few migrant families that I know would have at least one member who would have struggled with the test. Does that mean they are unworthy of citizenship? If my grandparents spend most of their time helping their children and grandchildren succeed, are they un-Australian simply because they may not be aware that, at 80 something years of age, one of their supposed duties as a citizen is to take up arms and fight enemies of Australia? Are my parents bad citizens if they can't recall the date of Australia Day holiday because in their jobs they never got the day off? Are they unworthy to be Australians because instead of attending 400 hours of English classes they worked full time to make sure their family didn't have to rely on the dole? If they stayed on the dole no doubt they'd be labeled as a burden to Australian society, but because they chose to work or run their own businesses, rather than learn about the golden wattle, the government says they are not citizen material.
Is this what citizenship is about - memorising a few random facts about Australia? Is a handful of trivia more important than real achievements, real struggles and real victories? Is it more important than making a substantive improvement to Australia, not just through their own work, but by giving it and supporting the next generations who excel in their fields of endeavour?
Alice's article struck a chord because, in the same way that the citizenship test devalues the achievements and contributions of her family to Australia, it devalues the achievements of my own family and countless other families I know. It says to them that what they have done, what they have sacrificed and what they will do for this country is less important than playing a game of 20 questions, that living in the spirit of Australian life is less important than being able to recite the first line of the national anthem. It penalises those who chose to live as good citizens, rather than study about becoming good citizens.
The citizenship test is a pointless and misguided policy. It is a bad policy. And bad policies don't make good citizens.
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