A ’roo burger with Oz values topping, please!

In the colourful language of racial abuse favoured by the aggressors in the recent wave of attacks on Indian students in Australia, I’m a ‘fob’ - someone who is “fresh off (the) boat”, a recent arrival Down Under. I’m also a ‘curry-muncher’, being partial to spicy Indian signature dishes, although more accurately I’m an equal-opportunity glutton who is now salivating for a ‘kangaroo burger’.

But even as a curry-munching fob, I don’t expect to be racially taunted — or, worse, set upon with screwdrivers — during my short stay in Australia. That’s because I’ve sworn affirmation to a set of “Australian Values” that will, I’m reasonably assured, serve as my suit of armour. Let me explain… 

Most applicants for an Australian visa are “encouraged” to sign an ‘Australian Values Statement’ affirming their respect for “the Australian way of life”. The ‘values statement’ is the result of an ongoing effort to define an “Australian identity” as part of an experiment in multiculturalism by a country that’s assimilated millions of migrants in recent decades.

More than twice the size of India, Australia has a population of only 21 million — but a striking 43% of them were either born overseas or have one parent who was born overseas!

But that immigrant influx, particularly a rising tide of Asians in recent years, has occasionally triggered outbursts of right-wing xenophobia, although, to be fair, they haven’t gained much mainstream traction.

The ‘Australian Values Statement’ provision was introduced in October 2007 to establish a common-denominator set of ‘values’ that all citizens and most visitors must abide by. For the most part, these represent nothing more than a ‘good citizen’ charter: signatories pledge respect for, among other things, equality under law, individual freedom, and freedom of speech and religion, a secular government, parliamentary democracy, “peacefulness” and the (undefined) Oz tradition of ‘mateship’.

Permanent visa applicants also acknowledge that “the English language, as the national language, is an important unifying element of Australian society.”

Earlier this year, however, Scott Mahony, a police inspector in Brimbank city in Victoria state, appeared to suggest that Indian students in Australia perhaps overstepped the shadowlines of these ‘Australian values’ formulations, and were therefore ‘visible minority’ victims of random muggings.

“They need to make sure,” he said of Indian students, “that they walk through well-lit routes… and they don’t openly display signs of wealth with iPods and phones, and don’t talk loudly in their native language.” Apart from reinforcing a racial stereotype of Indians, his words reflected a ‘blame-the-victim’ mentality.

In any case, I’ll be playing it doubly safe. No native language, only English for me, and no loud talking or iPods either. And when I order my kangaroo burger tonight, I’ll ask for the ‘Australian Values’ dressing…