The right to work – but not for all

In 1856 a worldwide achievement of the labour movement occurred in Melbourne. The ‘eight hour day’ was won by stonemasons working on projects at Melbourne University Parkville and the Victorian Colonial Parliament House in Spring Street. In 1934, the Eight Hour Day was renamed Labour Day and has been celebrated since then as recognising workers’ contributions towards the national economy.

Labour Day is widely recognized as an occasion for unions, community groups and the general public to join in celebration of work, rest and play. This year, there’s a group of people who won’t be celebrating Labour Day as they do not have the right to work. I am talking about asylum seekers.

In November 2012, our Government announced that the “no advantage” principle would extend to asylum seekers arriving by boat who are released into the community on bridging visas while they wait for their asylum claim to be processed. The Government initially proposed denial of work rights was an application of the ‘no advantage’ principle recommended in the Houston report’s recommendations – it subsequently withdrew that assertion:

After representations from Mr Aristotle and others, Mr Bowen asserted on Monday that the new rules were ”not actually linked to the no-advantage principle as such”, and were more about the surge in numbers from Sri Lanka and the belief that many were ”economic migrants” and not refugees.

Who could have imagined that the Labor Party who prides itself as ‘the party of work and opportunity’ would send asylum seekers down the pathway of destitution? It’s estimated that in 2013, 10,000 asylum seekers will be released from detention nationally into the community without the right to work for up to five years. An entire community intentionally dumped into uncertainty and despair. When we realize that 90.8% of asylum seekers who came by boat last year were found to be refugees by the Australian government, we understand the real motive isn’t to stop economic migrants. Rather it’s to extinguish all hope and ability to survive; so asylum seekers give up and return home. In the process of breaking this community they can win votes by showing the public that they can be more callous and cruel than the Coalition, nothing more.

I’m all too familiar with the misery not being able to work creates for asylum seekers. Under the Howard Government the majority of asylum seekers had no right to work. The legacy of that policy was written on the bodies, faces and spirits of every asylum seeker who walked through the doors of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. Self – harm, suicide attempts, family breakdown, chronic homelessness, mental illness and welfare dependency were its hallmarks – a blueprint for unbearable suffering. I’m still haunted by the words of a proud man who wept uncontrollably in front of me as he said “I’m no longer a man, a father or a husband. I am nothing. I wish God would just take me’.

Now I ask you how does this policy make any legal, moral, economic or social sense?

Legally it breaches the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Morally it forces people who want to work into welfare dependency and homelessness. It’s a policy that persecutes rather than protects people in need of protection as refugees. Economically, approximately 70% of asylum seekers have skills that are in demand in Australia. Instead of letting them give back, contribute, pay taxes and strengthen our economy, our government will spend up to $1.5 billion in welfare payments over the next five years to not let them work. Socially, 9 out 10 are our future Australian citizens. Do we want them to be proud, successful Australians or the generation we forsake that becomes an underclass?

Victor Chang, Frank Lowy and Sir Gustav Nossal were all asylum seekers. Imagine if they had been denied the right to work. How much poorer would our nation have been without their vision and entrepreneurial spirit?  Given the right to work imagine the heights the next generation of asylum seekers can soar to in our great multicultural country.

The ASRC is proud to stand with over 50 agencies and 1200 individuals in advocating for the right to work for asylum seekers. We firmly believe that the right to work is a basic and fundamental human right that we as a country should proudly and loudly uphold. We ask you on Labour Day to stand with us simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM
Founder and CEO, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)

Top image: Kamalesh at work as part of the New Neighbours Project in North Parramatta – this project involves the local community and various refugee support groups in order both to strengthen social cohesion and help refugees establish themselves within the community www.therefugeeartproject.com