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| WORLD SOCIALISM |
Almost every day New Zealanders watch the reports on the
global refugee crisis. Anyone paying any attention to current events will have
seen the Mediterranean turning into a watery grave as Europe argues over how to
deal with this influx of asylum seekers. Workers should understand that the
country’s intake is very small. The New Zealand government's response has been
just 100 places within the quota since the war began four long years ago.
Many opposing help for refugees present the "put New
Zealanders first" line. It goes like this: we have poverty here, once that
is totally fixed we can accept more poor people from abroad. This argument
mistakes refugees as a burden and is a reasoning mostly founded on xenophobic
fears.
Murdoch Stephens, spokesperson and researcher for ‘Doing Our
Bit - Double New Zealand's Refugee Quota’ suggests that the quota should keep
pace with New Zealand’s rising population. This would increase the quota to
1120 places. But on top of the quota we also take 300 people through family
reunification and about 120 people as asylum seekers (once appeals have been
counted). Fifteen years ago the average was 500 accepted asylum seekers per
year. The significant decrease since then has been due to pre-screening of
people before they could get to New Zealand to claim asylum. Since the government closed that window, it
should open a door: 380 more places in the quota to make up for the number we
used to take. Add this to the population increase and the quota should be 1500
places. NZ would be doubling the quota in nominal terms, but in real terms we'd
be doing only what we've done in the past. The average Kiwi will not notice,
but the 750 extra people – roughly 200 families – certainly will.
Amnesty International is also calling for New Zealand to
double its refugee quota to help deal with the international humanitarian crisis.
New Zealand executive director of Amnesty International, Grant Bayldon said New
Zealand had not changed its refugee quota in almost 30 years and was ranked
90th in the world for the number of refugees it took annually. He said not only
was New Zealand not leading the world in taking its share of refugees, it was a
laggard.
Holocaust Research and Education Centre director Inge Woolf
said the Government must increase its current refugee limit of 750 people. She
said all nations should increase their refugee quotas. "I'm a survivor of
the holocaust and I know my family found it very hard to find shelter. We
eventually did by going on holiday visas to England, but most of my family
didn't." She said asylum seekers faced huge obstacles as they tried to get
to safety. Ms Woolf said she had empathy for refugees trying to flee their
homelands. "These people are desperate to leave the places they've gone
from. They don't do it for a joy ride and it's up to the nations of the world
to take in more of them." She said refugees were valuable citizens to the
country that took them in. After WW2 New Zealand took about 1,000 Jewish
immigrants and said it had done its bit. Paltry, insignificant and
inconspicuous are words they use to describe our efforts at rescuing people
fleeing the worst persecution the modern world has seen. We now face the
biggest refugee crisis since WW2. Sixty million people are displaced. This
time, New Zealand should step up and offer to take some of those Syrian
refugees. They're no different from us.
"What I am seeing here is quite hard to
comprehend," says New Zealander Corinne Ambler who works for the Red Cross
in Macedonia "It's hard to believe it's happening in Europe. These are
human beings, leaving their homes, they don't want to do that, and people need
to show them a little bit of humanity." Corinne Ambler says anyone could
become a refugee. "At the end of the day, they're people, they're human
beings, and other human beings should treat them like that."
The mayor of Ashburton says making it easier for migrants to
work in Canterbury will, in turn, help reinvigorate the region's economy. Angus
McKay said he wanted a friendlier, smoother transition for people coming to the
area to live and work from abroad. Mr McKay said there had been an influx of
migrants into Ashburton over the past 10 years. According to the latest census
figures, he said, the average age of people in the district was falling as a
result.
It is the lucky few only who manage to break through the
mass of regulations and restrictions which the various countries insist on imposing
before they will allow a refugee to settle within their boundaries. Every
country with room to spare should ease open its bureaucratic door and undertake
to accept unfortunate men, women and children in urgent need of help with no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’. Human
beings are being shunted from one place to another, in response to political
events, and treated as objects to be kept at arm's length or sent back as
quickly as possible to wherever they came from.
Sadly, under capitalism, artificial lines on maps
divide the world into different camps, which enable those who own the Earth to
defend their bit of it. A sensible society would have no concept of refugee-hood
or any of the other states of oppression. Far better to have a world where men
and women can be free to travel over its surface without the futile
restrictions of nationality, and where he or she can satisfy their needs from a
sufficiency of wealth that only socialism can make available. Inside socialism,
where the whole Earth is the common property of the whole world's population,
we will all be able to travel our planet to work wherever we desire, safe in
the knowledge that our brothers and sisters will welcome us on whichever shore
we land.
That is the aim of the World
Socialist Party (New Zealand). Shouldn't it be yours, too?
WSP(NZ) website:
E-mail:
wsp.nz@worldsocialism.org
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| WORKERS UNITED SOLIDARITY HAS NO BORDERS |
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