“The last couple of weeks have been a very dark time in our history of this country and the laws that were passed last week are some of the most dangerous laws against human rights we’ve ever passed,” starts Kon Karapanagiotidis, CEO, asylum seeker resource centre.
We have seen the issue of asylum seekers and refugees been discussed heavily as a political issue, we have seen images in the media and we all – no matter what age, gender or religion – have an opinion on this issue. But what we share as the Greek community are experiences that can bring empathy and compassion back to this very human issue.
“There are so many common grounds in terms of our culture like filoxeni and the idea of compassion, community and family, and our culture is such a fit to it being a community with compassion and understanding because Greeks have been through genocide in our own country not that long ago and Greeks are one of the great migration success stories in the world,” says Karapanagiotidis, speaking about how Greeks can help. He believes the experiences shared by the Greek culture and that of recent refugees – coupled with the fact that Greeks have been such a success story throughout the diaspora – can give politicians and Australian society valuable insights into migration … if only we’d speak up.
As the CEO of the asylum seeker resource centre, Karapanagiotidis sees many people from different walks of life and religions engaging to help the refugees but says there is a significant lack of engagement by the Greek community. As an advocate for refugees in Australia, Karapanagiotidis himself has spoken at synagogues, mosques, and churches of every denomination – except Greek Orthodox. He wants to see more leadership from our church leaders on this issue, as well as more members of the Greek community as a whole.
“When you look at how big a community we are, and then how silent we are … it’s almost like we are scared to talk about [multiculturalism]; unless we are doing it in a safe, sanitised, sterile way like look how lovely our food is, or get a sign saying this is the Greek precinct,” he says.
In his eyes, the community should be showing the preciousness and the value that the Greek community have added to multiculturalism in Australia.
“The heartbreaking part is as long as the Greek community are not engaging in this we become part of the problem of intolerance and we end up perpetuating the same racism we ourselves were victimised by,” he says.
He adds that migrants and refugees share the same experiences of victimisation and a notion of not wanting to go through it again, and in the case of the Greek community, he feels that some members don’t want to relive the traumatic experience they faced when they migrated. But this turns into a double-edged sword in some cases, as while the parents are trying to protect the children from the hardships they have faced, and to redeem all the sacrifices they made by giving their all to their children, they have created a generation of disconnected Greeks, who Karapanagiotidis describes as “apathetic and uninterested in anything outside of wealth, family, money and status” and adds that good Greeks in Australia are a minority.
Karapanagiotidis believes it’s critical that church leaders, Greek politicians, business leaders and prominent Greek people speak out about the current government policies and find practical and symbolic ways to build the bridge between society and asylum seekers. And he’d like to see this happen on a symbolic and practical level; symbolically, with the Greek community coming out and speaking on behalf of migration and discussing their success story of how one migrant group has been successful in Australia, and practically, by forging links with the refugee and asylum seeker community and taking a more hands-on role.
“I’d like to see Greeks build those cross cultural links, to talk about the power and value of immigration – the fact that’s its not a failure and what made Greeks so successful was opportunity and eventual acceptance into the community and the chance to exist as equals. And we fought hard to get there and that’s what allowed us to be successful,” he says.
Both politically and through the media, asylum seekers have been demonised and boat people have been spoken about to great lengths but is it nothing but sheer hypocrisy on Australia’s behalf? In a nation ultimately built on boat people, coming to the shores and taking over from the Indigenous Australians, is this whole debate a farce and is this discussion of assimilation warranted?
“Assimilation is a racist cancer that is forced upon migrant and refugee communities,” Karapanagiotidis says matter-of-factly.
“Of course people coming into a country – they need to adapt and to uphold the laws of a country which is reasonable of any country to expect, but assimilation I think is a much more dirty a word, in it creates this impression in which it pathologises and problematises difference.”
He says assimilation is based on the notion of a dominant culture, where in Australia that should be the Indigenous Australians.
“[Australians] sit here as people themselves who came by boat and are telling other migrants and refugees to assimilate?” he asks stating the Greek community has proudly held on to their culture, and as one of the oldest cultures on earth, they should not give that up.
“We are one of the most uprooted communities in the world and I think it’s time to embrace that and celebrate that and think we were once like those people and what we would have liked at the time was some compassion and welcome and the only reason we get it now is because we fought and suffered,” he emphasises.
A way to understand and to empathise is to put yourself in their shoes and try for a moment to imagine what would make people flee their country and risk their life on a boat – what situation do they face to do this? Last year, the SBS program Go Back To Where You Came From did just that. It put a human face to the asylum seekers debate and showed ordinary Australians what it was like to walk in the shoes of the same refugees that they’ve brandished and suggested to go back to their own countries. And the series is back again.
In 2012, six prominent Australians risk their lives to experience the reality of refugee life, as they embark on an extraordinary and confronting three week journey. They bring a wealth of experience to the table, but nothing can prepare them for the twists and turns in store.
The Australians face mortal danger in the world’s deadliest cities – from the sweltering, war torn capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, to the riotous streets of Kabul, freezing amidst the mountains of Afghanistan. They join the greatest human exodus of modern times in the Ethiopian desert, live amid the squalor of one of the world’s biggest refugee camps, bunk down with families in Jakarta waiting to board a boat of refugees, meet with some of the young men involved in these operations, and then set sail for Christmas Island themselves – heading directly into the eye of the storm. The journey reaches its emotionally charged conclusion with unprecedented access within the walls of Christmas Island Detention Centre. It is intense, shocking, and one of the most challenging experiences of their lives.
And Karapanagiotidis says it couldn’t have come at a better time. The television series will once again open the dialogue about asylum seekers in Australia. It will ask why people risk their lives on a boat if they know the dangers.
“The reason why I think [Go Back To Where You Came From] is so important, is you are seeing – often for the first time – the genuine faces and stories of people seeking asylum and having it shown in a way that’s not skewed, it’s not biased, it’s just showing the reality,” he says.
“What I am hoping is that Australians are then forced to reconcile all the lies and rubbish they’ve been fed by the media and the lies that has been fed by Abbott and Gillard and all the distortion and demonising of these poor people and ask how does that fit with what I am seeing which is some devastated community, impoverished people, some desperate people fleeing for their lives, how would I survive in that situation?
“And I think it forces us to at least temporarily stop and reflect and say if that was me in that situation what would I do and the reality is everyone would do the same thing – that it they would do whatever it took to save their family’s life and flee and that’s the universal truth.”
For the Greek community, Karapanagiotidis adds that we should all “remember how fortunate we are, the sacrifice our family made and remember when people find themselves in that situation to have some compassion.”
Go Back To Where You Came From will screen on SBS One at 8:30 on 28-30 August.