Refugee crisis a time to live up to reputation
Last week I resisted writing about the dire problem facing Syrian refugees in the hope that the New Zealand Government’s initial lacklustre response to the crisis would be overwhelmed by public opinion.
In a sense it was. Prime Minister John Key has been forced to backtrack on his initial lukewarm stance, which was to say there would be no review of the annual refugee intake of 750 and no emergency one-off intake until a review of the quota had been conducted by the middle of next year.
However, in a belated realisation that many Kiwis were ashamed at this pitiful reaction to the crisis, the Government has eventually agreed to an emergency intake of 600 Syrians, though Key betrayed his continued reluctance at the move by emphasising the cost and the strain it would put on the resettlement system.
Critics have argued that the system is stretched because of Government under-funding over the past few years and for the prime minister to raise cost as an obstacle to New Zealand ‘‘doing its bit’’ for refugees is risible.
This is a Government prepared to spend $26 million on deciding whether New Zealanders are in favour of adopting a new flag, even though only John Key seems to have been asking the question.
This is also the administration that handed Warner Bros Entertainment $150 million in tax breaks to make the Hobbit trilogy in New Zealand. And let’s not forget the $36 million that was stumped up for an America’s Cup challenge.
Are flags, films and a millionaires’ yachting tournament really more important than the lives of people who have lost their country, their homes and, in many cases, members of their family?
It was heartening that a groundswell of reaction in social media and on the streets forced a change of heart by the Government on the refugee situation but comments on Facebook and on news sites also revealed an inherent selfish streak in our society.
‘‘Charity begins at home’’ was a common theme of many opponents of any improved response by New Zealand to the refugee crisis unfolding in Europe.
Of course, we have problems here, such a child poverty and a housing shortage, that need to be addressed but does anyone really think these will be solved or even alleviated if we slam the door on refugees? I would say it’s highly unlikely.
‘‘NO NO NO to extra refugees. Send a message they should stay in their own homes and sort it out themselves.’’ That was one of the less cerebral comments that I came across.
Apart from the fact that the Middle East is such a mess largely because of the West’s meddling in the region, the vast majority of these refugees are just ordinary families with little opportunity to ‘‘sort it out themselves’’. And as for ‘‘staying in their own homes’’, has the writer not seen the destruction that the Syrian civil war has wrought on the population? Many homes are now just a pile of rubble.
Another writer claimed: ‘‘The PC brigade have opened the floodgates and it will be very hard to close them now.’’
An annual refugee intake of 750 for the past 30 years is hardly opening the floodgates. While the anti-refugee views being shared on social media and radio talkback are certainly not indicative of New Zealanders’ views as a whole, they are in sharp contrast to the public attitude displayed by Kiwis in 1944 when 838 Polish refugees arrived by ship in Wellington and were welcomed with open arms.
In the words of the commentator of a newsreel shot at the time: ‘‘They (the refugees) are broken pieces of once peaceful communities. They are remnants of families. These are the people war uproots and casts aside.’’
What was true of those Polish refugees, most of whom went on to become loyal and successful New Zealand citizens, is equally true of the Syrians who have become the flotsam of a cruel civil conflict. And, like the Poles, with public goodwill and the support of their communities they will also become useful, contributing members of New Zealand society.
Germany has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees because it has recognised that many are young, well educated and will be useful members of society.
Here our Government is reluctant to open the doors even just a little bit wider.
New Zealanders are justly proud of a national history that has been enriched by social conscience at home and responsible global citizenship. This pedigree is one of the reasons New Zealand was recently able to win widespread support for a place on the United Nations Security Council.
Now is the chance for us to live up to our reputation.