Creating opportunities for asylum seekers, and the community

The ASRC’s newly opened centre in Dandenong has completed its first English language class for 30 community-based asylum seekers. Director of the ASRC’s empowerment pillar Gavin Ackerly was part of the celebration.

November 13 was Graduation Day for our very first English classes at the ASRC Dandenong. Outside it was grey, wet and bloody cold – inside was another story.

Around 30 students and 10 staff and volunteers gathered around a little feast conjured by manager Rosa’s mum (in a building maintained by her dad!). There was laughter and many heartfelt thank yous from both sides. To see the joy and sense of pride in the faces of the men and women who gained their certificates today more than repaid us for the serious effort it has taken to build this new ASRC centre.

The Dandenong ASRC was initiated to expose and further develop the immense talents of people seeking asylum. In the 18 months prior to the opening of the centre I had spoken with a number of federal government representatives pleading for English and employment services to be offered for asylum seekers in cluster areas such as Dandenong.  I felt the release of Irregular Maritime Arrivals (IMAs) had given us a real chance to prove how community processing could work – for asylum seekers and Australia as a whole.  For me, employment was the key. If it could be proved that community processing can have a positive impact on our economy, it would be harder to close the lid when the Coalition gained power federally. And I knew after seven years of helping asylum seekers find employment that all they needed was a chance.

The problem was that the Gillard government had only half committed itself to community processing. In the face of media hype over the number of IMAs living in the community, it could not bring itself to allow asylum seekers to access adequate employment and English services. This meant that those asylum seekers living in the community had to somehow learn to navigate Australia’s complex job market entirely by themselves, often with language difficulties. This left most with two options: either be exploited by unscrupulous employers and work in risky conditions for less than $10 per hour, or be locked into a deficient welfare system that one had little hope of climbing out of.

So, when all avenues appeared closed, in stepped the ASRC. Already grappling with the overload of need in its West Melbourne centre, it still had the heart and vision to extend itself to meet the basic human needs of asylum seekers living in the southeast.

And so the ASRC Dandenong was born. During the hum and buzz of the graduation today it was nice to bask in the warm glow of a dream being realised. But it soon occurred to me that today was more than just another milestone in the ASRC’s history. Today was really about the extraordinary potential of human beings: the asylum seeker students who’ve overcome incredible trials and have somehow managed to keep it together enough to pull off ten weeks of language study. This all in the face of aggressive governments who paint them as criminals and strip them of their ability to feed themselves. And then there’s the staff and the volunteers of the ASRC Dandenong – the family who keep this place going day in and day out on a wing and a prayer. They’re a testament to what’s possible when we accept all human beings deserve dignity and we just get down to the business of making it happen.