Taking the humanity out of humanitarian migration
Every time I think that this government cannot sink any lower I'm in for an unpleasant surprise. Kevin Andrews' comments about African refugees are as low as they come, but as the election looms closer and no credible excuse for the extremes of wedge politics is found, the government is sure to come up with more and more extreme attempts to re-create its Tampa "success".
Andrews claims that the government reduced the African humanitarian migrants intake because they have "additional challenges" integrating. It's a real problem you see. No matter what we do those bloody African refugees still have black skin, dark eyes, lack blond hair, some of them speak with an accent and many can't even name the birthday and star sign of Sir Donald Bradman. That's just not good enough, that's un-Australian. Whatever we do, we can't make them exactly like us, goddamn it!
But sarcasm aside, Andrews' argument for cutting African intake is that:
"We know that they have on average low levels of education, lower levels of education than almost any other group of refugees that have come to Australia. We know that many of them, if not most of them, have spent up to a decade in refugee camps and they've spent much of their lives in very much a war-torn, conflicted situation."
Perhaps little Kev was away sick when they taught the meaning of "humanitarian" at school, because what he is saying is that precisely the factors that call for humanitarian intervention are the factors that are used to reduce humanitarian intake. The fact that African refugees are more disadvantaged than others has become the reason for doing less to redress that disadvantage.
This perverse reasoning turns the rationale for humanitarian programs on its head, it takes the humanity out of humanitarian migration. Rather than focusing on human welfare, as humanitarian ideals demand, Andrews' approach suggests we should take the "easier" refugees, the ones who are more like "us". Forget about those most at need. Don't you see the attractiveness of that argument? They are black, aren't they? They are foreign, they are strange, they are refugees. If you don't think of them as humans you don't have to worry about humanitarianism!
RSS
