The Centre for Refugee Research (UNSW) conducted a consultation with students and teachers from NSW schools in 2012.
Students said they are exposed to many different messages and myths about asylum seekers and refugees.
Students shared both the positive and the negative messages they had heard about refugees and asylum seekers in their school environment, in the wider community and from the media. The responses given identified a wide range of myths about the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers but also demonstrated that for the majority of students, the most balanced and informed information came from the classroom.
The comments heard in the wider school environment, such as the playground, differed to the information students received in the classroom. Some of the attitudes identified outside the classroom setting were:
In school we hear that they are taking over and all the Australian people are going to be bred out. That it doesn’t affect us. That we are better than them.
In school people make jokes about them in the playground.
At school we hear that they form gangs, the phrase “We grew here, you flew here.”
In contrast there was a general consensus that teachers in a classroom situation presented neutral information and encouraged students to formulate their own ideas from well-sourced information.
In school we are taught about refugees in a positive way, we are informed about them. We are taught that we shouldn’t dislike them because they are from a bad country.
They aren’t going to make us have their opinion. They aren’t going to force us. They don’t teach us to be racist and negative towards them. They don’t think you should be racist, but they want you to have a view that is validated. They want you to be able to back up your opinion.
We have Society and Culture because we learn about [asylum seekers] in those subjects and the teachers have neutral opinions on them. Then we have jokes and there is multiple views. There are lots of views, people that have positive views, negatives views and no opinions. They get called illegals. There are biased opinions. There is Christmas Island and riots. Detention centre waiting lists. How many boats made it and how many boats didn’t make it?
Community
Some perspectives, students were hearing from the community sector, were based on understandings about the circumstances that cause people to leave their countries.
They have to be really desperate to be boat people, it must be horrible for them to want to get away.
Other views shared instead reinforced many of the myths about the refugee experience.
That they are irresponsible, it is stupid that they would come here and endanger their family on a boat. That they are illegal and breaking the law by coming here.
One student quoted a statement overheard in a shop.
Good for nothing black people.
While another repeated a slogan he saw on a T-shirt while walking along the street.
Those shirts saying “We are full.”
Some students felt that other community perceptions included negative views of asylum seekers as a result of the protests in detention centres.
There is a bad reputation on Christmas Island and detention centre, for the people. The riot gave them a bad reputation that they are going to go loose if let into Australia.
Media
Students identified that the media coverage about asylum seekers was largely negative. They spoke of a common message voiced of the media of an ‘us and them’ approach.
Don’t really know much about this culture so they don’t know how to act. The government gives them more money and other families don’t get as much as they do. Not fair and taking money.
In media we had the term boat people. Stealing local jobs. Media content calls them vermin that they are animals because they are from places not like here. There was a show on TV saying “should Australians speak English”
One individual gave an example of media content that was extremely offensive and overtly racist.
Something I saw on the news- there was a man saying the best message was that we shoot some of them down- they won’t come.
Students also referred to the way the media portrayed political views around refugee and asylum seeker matters. They gave examples of ongoing political debates and the perceived attitudes of certain politicians.
Politicians debating… and [some politicians] hate them.
The students offered a sound critique of the media information and demonstrated a solid awareness of media bias.
Media misrepresentations in conversation, because in the media they have bias.
The media are meant to be presenting a whole lot of different views but at the moment there is one view that is making money. The media is playing the ignorant role.
Many of the negative messages shared above were strongly contested by the students.
In considering the messages raised, the students were able to make sense of these issues by examining them in their broader perspective. In response to the belief that Australia does not have enough resources or money to accommodate people from a refugee background students were able to assess Australia’s situation in a global context.
We have one of the world’s strongest economies at the moment so it isn’t like we don’t have the money to fit them all in.
Others were able to use facts to measure the accuracy of common perceptions such as the notion of ‘illegal refugees’.
Under the UN Refugee Convention that we have ratified we have a commitment to take them.
The students were keen to understand where the myths originated from and why and to have further information and knowledge to challenge them.