Work

Vinh's family forcibly left their country. Alvin's family left for a better life. Colin and Hailun's families left for a better job. Despite differences in circumstances, we can draw comparisons from their experience with settlement into their new Australian lives. In terms of modern immigration, all three families moved from their home country to find a better job. In a war-less Asia, most immigrants would naturally be economically driven to Australia. In the three case studies, it was ensured that a stable income was established before te entire family moved, suggesting that common among all immigrants was the desire for economic security; going against the perception that Asians come here to steal our welfare. Ironically, the family that actually received welfare - the Nguyễn family - was welcomed by the government through an orderly resettlement program.

The modern families similarly split so that one person would establish themselves in Australia before moving the rest of the family, and often only the immediate family would leave. To contrast, when Vinh’s grandfather left Vietnam, despite his wife not being under persecution, both of them along with their extended families fled. In Vietnamese culture back in the 1970s, it was unthinkable to leave the family behind as one left their native soil, yet modern immigration shows that leaving the extended family is worth it in come circumstances.

Traditions

All families to an extent hold on to cultural and traditional practices, which shows a connection to heritage which is shared between them. Chinese/Lunar New Year (Trad Ch. 春節, Vt. Tết) is celebrated despite use of the Gregorian calendar in Australia; and the Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival (Trad Ch. 中秋節, Vt. Lễ Hội Trung Thu) is widely observed despite few immigrants actually running forms. For immigrants, these are things to hold onto or remember as a part of heritage, as well as a continuation of tradition; as opposed to a date of societal significance. Despite the traditions’ foreign origin, many are now celebrated by and sponsored in major suburbs and towns across Australia in recognition of the diversity in practices conducted in the modern Australian world.

With linguistic analysis, we can see a diversity in culture which Asian immgrants bring. While blanket terms like "Chinese" or "Malaysian" are often applied to groups of people and their language, immigrants from across Asia bring with them a multitude of languages which don't fit into such terms. To live in Malaysia means speaking Malaya and a Chinese language, as that relfects Malaysian heritage. Similarly one cannot get by in southern China without knowing the regional language as well as Standard Chinese. While it is common among all four families to speak multiple languages, the range of languages is very diverse. This concept greatly contrasts the monolingual nature of Australian society, which is likely why language diversity is so misunderstood in Australia.

Policy

A comparison between government policy in regards to refugees in the 1970s compared to the modern day can also be drawn. While Australia implemented programs for resettlement of refugees under the pressure of the United Nations, Australia now has adopted a closed-border policy. Instead of managing immigrants in Southeast Asian countries to arrive orderly in Australia as they did after the Vietnam war, Australia's presence in refugee hubs in Indonesia and Malaysia are non-existent; Australia's presence is now at sea, protecting its sovereign borders.

Alvin's extended family is now looking to enter Australia to rejoin their relatives, however despite coming only 7 years after Alvin's, they are faced with more restrictions and a tougher entry test. Since Alvin's family is now in Australia, his extended branch is entitled to a "relative visa", however this pathway isn't without barriers. The number of relatives entering the country is capped, and they are subject to "extensive waiting periods and this may affect [one's] decision to apply for one of these visas" (Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2017). Policy-wise this restriction has acted as a deterrence for his family to enter the country, however they still plan to come to reunite with Alvin's branch.

Notes

Trad Ch. refers to the Traditional Chinese way of writing, as opposed to the simplified standard