Discrimination against immigrants in workplace: It’s time to stop
Discrimination against these immigrants, which has no reasons to exist anywhere in Australia, especially in the workplace, does exist. And we need to stop it.
To begin with, think yourself as a worker but in a company in another country. While you work as best as you can to make a living, your colleagues there suddenly hate you just because you come from a different country. They hate you just because your skin colour is different, your accent is different. If one day you know all of that, realize they hate you just because of who you are, how would you feel?
Australia is becoming more and more popular. People from parts of the world are coming here. To stay. To work. To live. With visas in their hands and dreams in their heads, they are willing to make the best out of them to fulfill their dreams in this country. Wouldn’t it be cruel to them if those dreams will slowly die because they are getting discouraged and treated badly by the locals for something they are born with?
Discrimination in workplace is like bully at schools but on a higher level. We have heard lots of common stories about a child being bullied at school for being different from others, then discrimination against immigrants is the same thing. Same immature actions coming from immature thoughts about immigrants.
Yes, their first languages are not English. They speak English with different accents. Yes, their skin colours are differents. And yes, they have different cultural backgrounds. But all of those things are never and will never be enough of a reason for racial discrimination. Never.
Hating someone is not wrong. But hating them for their races is. There’s just no excuse for that.
Australia, as people say, is well known for multiculturalism. The population in Australia includes a large proportion of immigrants from different continents, especially Europe and Asia. But while European Australians in general are now commonly accepted in the society, Asian immigrants, especially people coming from the Middle East and Africa, those who are “newer” groups of migrants, are receiving discrimination from the locals in Australia, not only in workplace and the public, but also in the media. And this is just unfair.
“Media reports and commentary that use negative stereotypes about refugees and new migrants can fuel prejudice against these groups in the wider community.
And these attitudes can make it very difficult for new arrivals to find housing and jobs, and to feel connected to their communities.”
— Australian Human Rights Commission
But if you believe that all the things mentioned above belong to the past and discrimination does not happen in this modern society anymore, you are wrong. According to a survey conducted by the Scanlon Foundation in 2013, 19% of Australians are receiving discrimination based on their skin colors, ethnic origin or religious belief. That’s an increase since the survey in the previous year, which only reported 12%. But what is more tragic here is that discrimination still exists in this era; more than one person in this society are still being racist towards people who are different to them. Think about that.
And that’s not the end. Racial discrimination happens in a lot of places and workplace is one of them. In fact, immigrants workers are receiving more undeserving hates than you think. A survey conducted by SBS and Western Sydney University in 2017 showed some surprising facts about discrimination against immigrants in Australia, including 54,1% of immigrant workers suffering racism in the workplace. So it means that at least half of Australians whose backgrounds are not English are being discriminated at work, on all kinds of level. Think about that.
It’s already 2018. We don’t want another Cronulla Riot.
So of course the whole thing of racial discrimination, especially in workplace, needs to be stopped. But how can we do it?
It is not like immigrants are not protected. They do get protection from the Australian statute law ( Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cwlth) ). But obviously the laws are not enough to totally protect them in every situation; the stats above say it all. That is why we need to act as well. And we can start from within our businesses.
The workplace can be a battlefield. Everyone is working hard to “survive”, and to get paid. What needs to be done here is we need to make sure that the competition is equal for everyone. Not even a single action that shows sign of racial discrimination should be allowed at work. All the actions of racial discrimination should be reported to unions and organizations, such as Australian Fair Work Ombudsman. As for the managers, workers’ income should be paid based on their work efficiency and their behavior, not any other factor. Immigrants workers should be paid attention to in case they are discriminated. Not everyone is brave enough to come to their boss and say they are being racially harassed, so it is better to approach them and ask if they feel alright at work, etc. Those actions listed above are just some of the things that business people could do to make sure that racial discrimination no longer exists in the workplace. You don’t have to make huge advocacy or anything; start with small actions and it will spread out and become bigger.
It will take some time, of course, for this problem to be solved. But the moment you start to act against racial discrimination and protect the immigrants, things will have already got a little bit better.
And one last thing for all the racists out there:
Stop the hate. Start loving. It is not that hard.
Reference:
Acharya, M (2017). Is Australia racist? sbs.com.au. Retrieved from https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2017/02/27/australia-racist-here-are-10-stunning-stats
Australia Human Rights Commission. Who experiences racism? Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/resources/what-you-say-matters/who-experiences-racism
Marriner, C. (2014). Racism on the rise in Australia: migrants report cultural shift. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/racism-on-the-rise-in-australia-migrants-report-cultural-shift-20140405-365a5.html
SBS Australia (2017). Is Australia Racist?. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYWnPMhfO4k