Dirty, Drugs, Heroin, Junky, Poverty,
Crime, Murders, Gangs, and Asians. All stereotypes built in Cabramatta. Cabramatta
then and now has evolved dramatically since the first asylums have arrived into
Australia.
‘Once Upon a time in Cabramatta’ is a documentary
made up of three episodes depicting the struggle for the first Asian migrants
assimilating into the Australian homogenous culture. Families like the Hoang
family experience difficulties in their host country, leading to their forced
migration into Australia. Migrants flee their home hoping to escape the
sufferings of war and seek a better posterity. Barriers such as: language, lack
of facilities and the homogenous culture create challenges for migrants like
the Hoang family to steadily integrate. In Australia during this time, there
were ‘no social workers, there are no
welfare workers’ and ‘almost no interpreters’. This has resulted in Cabramatta
being an area filled with migrants, as if they don’t exist. The government had
not implemented any facilities for the migrants so clearly this would happen. Hattam
and Every (2010) raises the awareness of the ‘racists fears of the other’
during this time, inducing the idea of Asian migrants being the ‘stereotypical
enemy’[1].
Obviously with the lack of facilities and
negative media projections around the diction ‘Asian migration’ will cause the
outbreak of drama and crime will be developed. The youth and parents were
heavily affected by the lack of facilities.
Rainbow (1997) suggests acknowledging and
promoting diversity will generate new modes of togetherness[2],
counteracting the fear of difference. Young teenagers were dropping out of
school to become apart of gangs, children have failed to attain their
traditional language leading to the communication barrier within families.
Parents were constantly working, to provide food for the family. Both parents
would work just so it would be sufficient to pay for the basic quality of life.
Parents could not work in the professional work field due to their low
proficiency in English. Therefore, with the parents providing lack of love, time
and connection with their children, the youth have felt isolated within
Australia as a whole and their families. Tony emphasized It
just really broke my family apart’. Why wouldn’t you turn to a gang where you feel as if you are a part
of a family? They felt alone, no one can empathies with you besides your gang
members. The strong connection amongst one another and achievement of belonging
attracted all the young refugees. The gang members had nice shoes, money and
many luxury goods. They did not see the downfall in this ultimatum. This has
led to the outbreak of ‘criminal gangs’. One particular group
drawing attention is a notorious group called the ‘5T’. The 5T have an infamous
reputation around Western Sydney. They have contributed
to a ‘number of street and shop robberies, muggings and bashing of innocent
citizens’. Cabramatta began to draw attention
into their suburb, but for all the bad reasons. Everyday sirens would go off
and police would be constantly busy.
If the government began by facilitating the
needs of migrants like fostering an education system that did not treat the
migrants as a homogenous group, provide quality education, with adopting their
traditional language into the curriculum and stop all the negative connotations
of the migrants on the media, maybe all these issues would not have existed. The
migrants have experienced hardship in their old home and arriving into
Australia has made it even more difficult. Personally, I feel sympathy for the
migrants, especially watching the personal documentaries of the families
speaking about their journeys. I strongly believe education is the to key.
Education has the power to empower the youth.
I believe one major influence of the many
outbreaks is because of the lack of enforcement towards education.
[1] Hattam, R., & Every, D.
(2010). Teaching in fractured classrooms: refugee education, public culture,
community and ethics. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(4), 409-424. doi:
10.1080/13613324.2010.488918
[2] Rabinow, P. 1997. Introduction:
The history of systems of thought. In Michel Foucault: Ethics, subjectivity and
truth, ed. P. Rabinow. New York: The New Press.
Media Source:
http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/video/11819075766/Once-Upon-A-Time-In-Cabramatta-Ep1
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSandy,
ReplyDeleteI have also watched the same documentary a couple times, and I also found a similar angle in reflecting upon the issues in an educational context.
Yes, the extreme lack of facilities for the refugees can most definitely be the cause for such negative effects to occur. Without any information provided to the newly arrived refugees who cannot speak English or never experienced the Western culture before, the results are obviously going to be troubling. The early enforcement of education on young children would have been one way to go about in avoiding the negative effects as school is arguably vital for a young child’s social development. However, there were multiple overlapping issues occurring, such as lack of financial support and oppression by the government, and it would take more than simply handing education to young individuals to steer them back to the right path. With that said though, if “distributive justice” (Gewirtz 1998, p. 470) were emphasised during the time, it would be quite interesting to see how it turned out as it may very well work during that period.
On the other hand, Gewirtz (1998) raises an argument that we should be focusing on adapting with the cultural change rather than trying to make ‘others’ adapt to the Australian ways of life. Hence, a strong need for recognition of the cultural difference that the refugees brought with them into Australia was the problem. Such lack in the government’s concern on the refugees’ needs and differences resulted to the refugees finding their own way to live and survive in face of the White supremacy, which was through asserting power. Furthermore, given that the refugees may already feel out of place, further oppression by power structures will only belittle them and provoke harsh outcomes for the overall society. So I do agree with you that education can be an empowering tool for youths, allowing them gain knowledge about the world around them as well as pushing them towards a positive direction for the future. Also, as we can see in today’s setting, recognising and appreciating cultural differences and dealing with it by providing supportive services will promote an inclusive environment that celebrates change and differences.
Great post!
Gewirtz, S. (1998), Conceptualizing social justice in education: mapping the territory. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), 469-484.