This is my original multicultural speech. These issues are real, every word of them, please respect that…
“I have a home. You have a home. Look around you; all of these people have a home. A safe, happy, protected environment. We are all, as much as we sometimes struggle to admit it, extremely fortunate. We also have fair rights, and we are protected by the law. But, all around the world, at this very moment, people are being forced to flee their homes, because where they live isn’t safe.
So, why would someone want to leave their country? Well, a main reason is due to discrimination based on skin colour, hair colour, religion or political beliefs. This is what racism is all about. Sadly, a lot of people are still experiencing it.
Racism has started wars. World War Two was, quite literally, Adolf Hitler trying to kill the Jewish because he didn’t think they looked ‘right’ and they had the ‘wrong’ religion. This meant that hundreds of thousands of Jews – and other people, for that matter – had to leave their homes. Even today, people are caught in the middle of civil wars and they have to leave because where they live isn’t safe.
People who have to leave their homes like this are called refugees. Often they come from poorer countries without the important resources that they need. Refugees leave their country to escape persecution due to race or religion. This is very hard for them, as they have to leave their belongings and families behind.
It is a hard and dangerous journey to Australia, or to any other safe country. Often, if they are lucky enough to reach their destination, refugees aren’t treated well. In Australia, we lock them up in detention centres that almost look like jail. Even the children! What did they do to deserve this? Absolutely nothing. As the UN states in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: a fundamental human right is to seek life, liberty and security of person.
Now – we should consider how we think about refugees, or rather, how we don’t think about them. People often forget that immigration can contribute to a strong and better economy. Instead the government locks refugees away, and the rest of us generally turn a blind eye to it. This isn’t fair. We all deserve freedom. Freedom to move around, to not be judged or enslaved. But we, in a way, do enslave them. We put them in a ‘detention centre’ because we are scared that if we treat them well we will encourage other refugees. This is not fair, and I don’t understand why we do this. What we should be doing is encouraging and supporting them as much as we can.
By now you might be thinking ‘ok, that is pretty terrible, but how can we fix this?’ And, to be honest, there is no real answer. The first thing we can do is keep protesting. Keep protesting for rights. Keep protesting for freedom. Keep protesting against racism. Thousands of people have protested before, and will continue to until these problems are fixed. Why not be one of them? Because the only way we can fix these problems is to keep speaking out about what’s not fair. And this, this is not fair.
Another thing we can do to help is to actually speak to them. Imagine being a refugee. Travelling thousands of kilometres across the ocean, not knowing if you’ll even arrive. You’d be terrified. And the only thing you’d want is to be accepted. Be given a safe home, a bed, all the things that we have here in Australia. We need to help refugees feel safe here, and help them make it their home. We need to accept them.
We can also support businesses that employ refugees, or are run by refugees, so that they are able to get money and pay for things like water, electricity, and insurance, things that many Australians take for granted. As well as this, we can donate to refugee organisations to ensure adequate food, education, and facilities. Every donation counts whether it’s money, clothes, or even just a few pencils. We can help make these refugee’s lives better.
Racism against refugees isn’t something that we can solve instantly. One speech won’t change the world. But every time one person does something, it helps. It encourages people to think. Thousands of people don’t have a place to call home because of racism. And if there’s one thing that I’m certain of, it’s that changes only happen if you let them. And maybe, just maybe, if we work hard enough, we will be able to see a world without racism. A world where everyone has a safe place to call home. Thank you.”
