- Frank Barron
When I read the zodiac forecast for my week, it said a brilliant week awaited me and that this week was going to be the first few days of the rest of my lifetime. Of course it all looked very promising till the actual week unfolded. I found Monday blues aggravated by my role of a single parent with hubby away for three days on a work trip. It was soon followed by a meltdown at work mid-week. I even made a fashion statement wearing my jacket inside-out to the kids school. But the highlight of the week was when an irate customer at work took his wrath out on me and told me to go back to my country.
I conduct multicultural workshops at my workplace and had taken up the offer of our HR and had organised a lunch for the multicultural team at the nearby Thai restaurant. While waiting for the team to make an appearance, I see this customer walk in and pound at the buzzer in the reception. I hear him having heated exchanges and hassle the young girl at the reception. As she disappears inside to fetch her supervisor and I also step inside to meet one of my colleagues, I hear his words "go back to your country". His words halt me in my stride - the jolt I receive is something that I find quite indescribable. I turn and look at him - the shock and pain clearly evident on my face for all the world to see.
I have lived 14 years in this country, well respected by my peers and colleagues and yet such mindless profanity from a total stranger had the power to reduce me to a second rate citizen in just a few minutes. On recollection, there was no wrath in his words, just calculated coldness and eagerness for a confrontation. Do such people even for a second realise the lives that migrants lead - far away from the solace and comfort of their homes, their customs and culture, each one driven by inexplicable needs and reason, dominated solely by their innate instinct to survive, these people lead a life that is not the least enviable by anyone. Every single one of us are bereft of the loving support and comfort of our families and yet choose to make a living here, in order to provide a better life for our progenies; with years passing we become total strangers even to the land that begot us and some of us die still as strangers in a foreign land.......with the label of migrants still indelible on our foreheads. Even though this is a life most of us chose for ourselves, it is a fate that we do not wish upon even our worst enemy.......the hardships, the challenges, the barriers, the confusion especially the feeling of not belonging, of being rootless that the first generation of migrants undergo is something you have to endure to completely understand.
I am someone who is prone to very quick temper, can easily lose my cool even over assumed and imagined offenses. It was perhaps intolerance in its mildest form but yet I did not believe I deserved it. Here was someone who was easily pushing my buttons and I was not ready to take flak from a scruffy bloke I had not even met earlier in my life. But I believe somewhere along the line over the last couple of years, I must have matured a bit.....I took in my surroundings and found that there were few more customers there and besides I was still in uniform. I bit my tongue and walked back inside and sought help from a colleague who was quite shocked that such a thing would happen in his community.
My biggest fear was what would the man's reaction be when he sees the ten multicultural staff of my workplace come out for the said lunch appointment. I was not ready to let my team be exposed to such indignity and callousness. For the first time, I understood what it means to be treated as an inferior in a foreign country, what it means to be different. Perhaps every other migrant or even my own kids had felt it before, but this was truly my wake-up call to take another look at the world outside me.
It was ironical that while this was happening, I was carrying flyers for the new migrant support group I am starting with a few overseas colleagues. Named "OASIS Wimmera" - it stands for Overseas Integration and Support, a not-for-profit group designed mainly to provide support for overseas people and help migrants to integrate easily into the community. What started as a mere seed of an idea has now blossomed into a fully grown support group with the blessings of the city council and the area's skilled migration initiative. This group was envisaged to provide the family support and sense of belonging that most migrants believe we lack by our decision to come overseas. Also with Oasis Wimmera, we want to blur the distinctions and barriers between the various multicultural communities as well and help us build strong connections within the community.
I have received such warmth and support from the women that I have met along my way in establishing this group and yet such a crude remark from a single person insignificant in every other way seemed to have left a bitter aftertaste....the repugnance of that incident still rankles at me, leaving behind a festering sore. Little did I realise when I threw my energy into starting a group for migrants and working towards making my dream a reality, I would also be fighting against such small mindedness and unbridled bigotry of people.
But yet, it has only made my resolve more stronger and I have pledged that I will not allow anyone to be exposed to such an incident again. I cannot single-handedly combat such pettiness but however can try to make a dent in these thick walls of ignorance and make such insensitive people see the richness and colour that the multicultural community brings into their monochrome world. I am now pushing to see the launch as successful as it can be and try sending a powerful message to the community that OASIS Wimmera will not only be a beacon for the Wimmera migrants but also be their buffer against such senseless attitude and acts.
But perhaps it is only in darkness, one tends to realise the gravity and importance of light......perhaps it takes one such act to make me realise and value the goodness and the support of the people around me, what I usually take for granted. News traveled fast and very soon I was showered with hugs and apologies by my colleagues. In fact one of the other customers, an old sweet man, who had witnessed the incident later remarked to our office staff that he was angry and very distressed to see an uncalled attack on such a lovely lady(......er, c'est moi, in case you are wondering :)) and had wanted to bash the other guy on my behalf. I have full faith that this community will stand behind us and help us weed out the few antagonists who are determined to make the lives of migrants miserable.
Now won't you raise your voice with me against such unreasonable and senseless behaviour?
PS: As the focus of my blog is shifting more and more to that of migrants, I am planning on inviting some guest-bloggers to write on this topic to provide some objective and unbiased views. So if you are a blogger, please feel free to write about this topic and email it to me to sujatha.umakanthan@gmail.com
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