Go Back to Where You Came From: Salons, Social Media and the Immigration Debate

For as long as I can remember I have always enjoyed going to the hairdressers to get pampered and fussed over. Not only does it give me a change to unwind and relax, I get to indulge in one of my guilty pleasures, eavesdropping on all the hairdresser gossip! However, what are you supposed to do when the gossip become less trivial and more heated, more political and more…bigoted?

Unfortunately, my last trip to the salon was far from pleasant. What went wrong, you ask? I made the mistake of talking about the fabulous time I’d had studying abroad in Sweden and travelling throughout Europe. I spoke of how cultured they appear to be over in the Northern Hemisphere and how uncultured Australians are in comparison, myself included. To clarify, I am not saying that we don’t care about other cultures, although definitely at times it seems that statement could be true. What I meant was that, as a society, we know so little about other cultures. As soon as I made this remark one of the owners turned around, looked me right in the eye and said, “Most of us don’t want to be cultured, we’re happy just the way we are.” Believe me, I quickly tried to back-peddle and explain my reasoning, but the damage was already done. She went off. Without holding back, she lashed out verbally and began ripping into different cultural minorities and exclaiming how they were taking away jobs from the “locals.” It wasn’t until her she made a final statement that I really felt rattled.

“Maybe they should all just go home…right back to where they came from.”

Needless to say I was flabbergasted. I mean come on, it’s 2015…I thought Australia was trying to move past our cultural and racial differences?

I was wrong.

If only I were magically gifted, I would have teleported her straight onto the set of reality TV show, Go Back to Where You Came From.

Since the first episode aired in 2011, this series has proven to be immensely popular given the worldwide recognition it has received. In fact, on its premiere night this series became the number one trending topic on Twitter. Given the prominence of this topic amongst Australians, this show has undoubtedly contributed to the increase in debate over Australian immigration laws. The premise of the series is to take a small group of Australians, with polar-opposite views on boat immigration, on similar journeys to those faced by asylum seekers on a daily basis.

One lady with such opposing views to both asylum seeker and immigration reform is Kim Vulgar Vuga. She is credited with creating the Facebook page, Stop the boat people and regularly shares posts degrading asylum seekers and those who sympathise with them.

Additionally, other contributors to her page share content degrading religion, specifically Islam, and linking this to all asylum seekers arriving by boat.

She has also been quoted as saying:

“This is Australia: We eat meat, we drink beer and we speak f**kin’ English.”

Unfortunately, these type of comments stick in peoples’ minds. Having travelled abroad, this idea that those whom are brought up only speaking English expect everyone to follow suit is definitely felt globally. Now, she is in no way a reflection of all Australians; however, given the amount of likes on her page, it would appear that a fair few people share some of her views regarding immigration and religion.

So, what are the figures? What’s the general consensus regarding the immigration debate?

Migration has long been a topic of interest amongst Australians given the history of how this country was founded. In fact, almost half of Australia’s population are immigrants or the child of an immigrant. Indeed, few countries have been as influenced by international migration as Australia. According to 2014 statistics, 28.1% of Australia’s residential population were born overseas. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that every 2-and-a-half minutes, Australia’s immigrant population increases by 1.

So, why are we so eager to reject cultural immersion given we are a country largely made up of immigrants? According to various opinion polls, since the 1970s the majority of Australians have wanted to see a decrease in the amount of immigrants entering “their” country.

Then again, that was ages ago, times have changed since that era…right? Surely overall views and opinions on immigration reforms would have changed since then.

Wrong.

In fact, the latest opinion poll question, which took place in 2001, showed that 41% of the Australian population still believe we are bringing in too many immigrants. Whilst these types of studies can never provide completely accurate answers given the impossibility of asking all Australians to participate in the poll, they do provide a generalized view or understanding of certain issues.

So, what does this information tell us about the future of Australian immigration, and how are these ideas linked? Are social media sites and programs like Go Back to Where You Came From aiding the belief that we shouldn’t accept those escaping persecuting and seeking asylum within our country? Are Australians feeling threatened as a result of an increasing immigrant population?

Honestly, I don’t know. I do believe that the anonymity of social media and the lack of government media monitoring is enabling freedom of speech. I also believe that a certain amount of Australians feel limited by their knowledge, or lack thereof, with regard to international cultures. As a result of this, studies have proved that we react negatively to the idea of immigration reform. However, that’s not to say that we turn our backs on these issues, especially when lives are at stake. If anything social media, tv shows and everyday word-of-mouth is influencing an increase of more heated discussions into this debate. Eventually, more people will start talking, societies will notice and shi stuff will (hopefully) happen.

P.S. For the record, I won’t be returning to that salon anytime soon.