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Man:
They’re just not like us and I’m …
Woman:
They’re really different.
Woman:
They stick together. They don’t join in the community. They take our jobs…
Man:
Our taxes are paying for these bastards.
Woman:
They jump the queue.
Woman:
I don’t think they can ever be like us.
Teacher:
Today we are going to talk about refugees and asylum seekers and the first thing we’re going to talk about is the myths that you guys may have heard.
Student:
The media is the way that kids learn about issues like this about asylum seekers, about refugees and currently the media attention given to them is almost entirely negative.
Teacher:
What are things that you think you’ve heard?
Student:
That they’re taking up our land space and there are slogans that say Australia is full.
Teacher:
What else?
Student:
That they take taxpayers’ money.
Student:
Take people’s jobs.
Student:
That they’re being irresponsible by coming here on boats.
Woman:
A combination of government policies and media demonisation have produced this idea that somehow refugees are trying illegally to enter the country. They’re not illegal. People are allowed to seek asylum under the United Nations agreements to which Australia is a signatory.
Teacher:
Callum.
Student:
That all asylum seekers come by boat when the majority of them come by other forms of transport like aeroplanes.
Teacher:
What about asylum seekers? Tara.
Student:
That they should wait in line like other refugees that come and they’re referred to as ‘queue jumpers’.
Teacher:
Where have you heard that before?
Student:
Media.
Man:
Anyone can come to Australia with or without any documentation to seek asylum.
Student:
Kids at school get this image especially between the media that these people are like infiltrating our country.
Woman:
This sort of fits in with the sort of island xenophobic mentality of some people in the country. We don’t really want anyone new to come to this country, we want to keep it for ourselves. We will determine who comes to this beach, suburb, street, whatever.
Man:
I used to go out with friends and someone asked them ‘Where are you from?’ And especially after the September 11, they would never say they were from Afghanistan, a refugee, that they came to this country by boat. They were feeling ashamed because of the way they were portrayed in the media.
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Woman:
Myself I’ve been into like a couple of situations where I’ve been told you know to go back to where I come from. I’ve been in the same situation in Iran.
Woman:
There’s another quite unpleasant myth which is associated with Muslim refugees and that is that they are all potentially terrorists.
Student:
For example people who wear burqas, we automatically assume that they’re terrorists.
Man:
It’s not my fault if I was born in Afghanistan. It’s not my fault if I was born in a Muslim family. So, I shouldn’t be punished for it and I shouldn’t be ashamed.
Woman:
One of the most common myths is the queue jumper myth.
Man:
I was labelled as a queue jumper and to be very honest I did not see any queue in Pakistan, in the Australian countries like Malaysia, like Indonesia.
Man:
We’ve got families who have been in refugee camps for years who know nothing else. Kids who have been born in refugee camps and have lived their whole lives there. For these families it’s extraordinarily difficult almost impossible to have access to UNHCR.
Teacher:
Any other myths? When I teach students about refugees and asylum seekers the main thing that I want them to take away is that they are people that have been through experiences that the students I’m teaching couldn’t even imagine. And that they do deserve some understanding and help and that if we were in the same sort of circumstance that they would like that in return from someone else.
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