AFRICA’S ENGAGMENT WITH AUSTRALIA
Ahmed (2007) argued that above two third of migrants who inhabit in Victoria under Australia’s Humanitarian Program currently come from African nations. Africans have been coming here for many decades. Coming from entirely different country and then adjusting into new country is very challenging task for them. As they face many issues in education and employment. They face linguistic issues and face financial challenges in life. Most prominent are the physical differences among African and Australian people. Although Africans have in-depth knowledge of Australian culture and society they take time to adjust into new country. The media inaccurately covered African and Australian communities in the past, which further creates tension among two groups and hence instability increases. Australia comes in top ten countries that resettle refugees each year, and after United States of America it has resettled most refugees most of whom are Africans. Most of them are under privileged i.e. women without male members in family (how Australia helps refugees).
Binswanger-Mkhize (2004), argued that there has been stagnant economic growth in Africa for decades now and hence they are facing huge poverty and sickness in the country. There has been slowest growth as compared to all other parts of the world majorly because investment is very low and at the same time on the other hand production is also very less. As a result of these things instead of growing it has faced decline in economic growth as compared to past years. Then food prices although improved then the past but it is expected that they would not remain this high more and will decline to the original price at the end, whereby they are still facing issues even when prices are high. Moreover Australia has a strong focus on African agricultural produce, because it is a means of security for them. They are highly motivated to improve the growth of agricultural sector of African countries, as increased growth will improve the food security in many possible ways. Africans representation in Australian media is also significant as huge population shifted to Australia as refugees; also as mentioned above they are not portrayed properly.
Lyons (2013) presented a paper “The Role of Education in Australia’s foreign policy toward Africa”, in which she argued that role in development of educational sector is significant, where Australian scholarship programs are educating Africans. These programs will educate above 1000 Africans in Australia from year 2013 to 2016. However she further claimed that there is need to educate Africans at primary level and secondary about Australia, which will further help them to learn about Australia and they will get know about it in detail.
African women day was celebrated in Sydney, Australia, which indicates that status of women is high and African women are encouraged by Australians. This event was attended by two hundred and fifty members, and it was an African themed International Women’s day, which was co-sponsored by AFSAAP. Four women shared ideas about development and progress throughout the world. It further generated funds for projects, moreover refugee students were given a chance to perform, they were although belonged to Australia but their background was African particularly Congo, Sudan, Somalia and Burundi. However some were also from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Ethiopia. The reason for shifting to Australia was basically some kind of war or terror in their own birth country (AFSAAP, March, 2013).
Ahluwalia (2013) gave a presentation on African seminar, which was organized by joined effort of AFSAAP and the Institute of Postcolonial Studies (IPCS). His book “Rethinking Reconciliation: Reflections on Genocide in Africa”, was based on the 1994’s genocide in Rwandan Africa. He explained in detail about the cause of this genocide and all the historical events associated with it. Majorly there were many issues after the genocide and challenges that every one faced at that time. Hence it depict that as many people attended the seminar awareness is being increase about such issues and as a result in the future chances of such events will lower, as people will be more sensitive about any event like genocide as it destroys a community and has many challenges associated with it.
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Explained that Africans faced number of challenges when they migrated to Victoria, and remaining parts of Australia. As many of these refugees when migrate to Australia they feel disconnected with the rest of the society and consider themselves dislocated, the major reason for such a disconnect is of course huge cultural difference among two parts of the world. These migrants faced huge difficulties in adjusting to Australians culture, customs and norms. Even when they want to learn about Australia there are only few opportunities were given to them to understand about Australian norms and values, they wanted to integrate themselves with Australian society, but these cultural differences among two groups became the reason for pressures on the migrants serious issues were seen in their physical and mental health. He further explained the role performed by foundation house in rehabilitation of refugees who faced mental and physical issues after migrating to Australia. Then education was a major issue for immigrants as they were put into different grades without considering their abilities but according to their age. This course and classes are then difficult for refugees as their education is disturbed for a long period of time because of war and terror. Similarly poverty and sickness is another reason why Africans face issues when they shift to Australia. Most of the young people do not have people that can support these young people and hence they face additional adjustment issues. Another issue is that they also face issues in getting employment, either because of lack of educational expertise or because of lack of proper language. Unemployment fuels financial issues and pressures on these people (Kretser 2007).
References
19 January 2005, how Australia helps refugees, retrieved from http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/pdf/A_New_Life_3.pdf
Ahluwalia (April 7, 2013), Opening AFSAAP –IPCS seminar by Pal Ahulwalia, “Rethinking Reconciliation: Reflections on Genocide in Africa”. Retrieved from http://afsaap.org.au/2013/04/opening-afsaap-ipcs-seminar-by-pal-ahluwalia/#more-376
Ahmed. B., (April, 2007), African resettlement in Australia, Retrieved from http://www.att.org.au/documents/African%20Resettlement%20Report.pdf
Binswanger-Mkhize. H., (2004), Food security in Africa, towards a support strategy for Australia, Retrieved from http://www.ode.ausaid.gov.au/publications/Documents/african_food_security.pdf
Kretser. D., (April, 2007), African resettlement in Australia, Retrieved from http://www.att.org.au/documents/African%20Resettlement%20Report.pdf
March 20th, 2013. African women’s day event at Sydney, Retrieved from http://afsaap.org.au/2013/03/african-womens-day-event-in-sydney/#more-252
Lyons. T., (April 7th, 2013), Contemporary Australian Foreign Policy toward Africa: The Role of Education, Retrieved from http://afsaap.org.au/2013/04/contemporary-australian-foreign-policy-toward-africa-the-role-of-education/#more-383
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