The Lowy Institute recently released a study entitled;
"Diaspora. A World Wide Web of Australians" [PDF]
. A shorter op-ed on the report in the SMH was entitled;
"Forget the brain drain, a new global community of Australians is emerging"
. Fullilove and Flutter argue that since so many Australians in the Diaspora occupy positions of power overseas ("the gold collar workers"), it increases Australia's soft power by keeping them involved with Australia. They offer six recommendations for this.
The Australian Diaspora remains engaged in Australian life, that is true for me. And I do not plan a Germaine Greer or Robert Hughes style exile, that is a Diaspora of the past. I plan to return to Australia, much wiser in the world for my travels. I, as a current member of the Diaspora, offer recommendations to the Australian government as to what they can do to keep me involved as part of the Australian political process. The verdict is - the government has a lot of catching up to do. The Diaspora is a country mile ahead of them.
The Australian Diaspora
The Diaspora is no longer the back-packers of years past or the self-imposed cultural exiles. With globalisation, the nature of the Australian Diaspora has also changed, now including more and more professionals. These numbers have doubled in the last fifteen years which has prompted concerns of an Australian brain drain. This has an easy answer however, make Australian salaries competitive, and increase oppurtunities - many Australians will choose to work in Australia, wanderlust aside.
Fullilove and Flutter sum up the size and changing nature of the Diaspora in the opening;
... there are approximately one million Australians outside Australia, perhaps three-quarters of whom live offshore on a permanent or long term basis. This latter group, the "Australian diaspora", is large and, in the main, prosperous, well educated, well connected, and well disposed to this country. It is also very mobile: rather than turning their backs on Australia once and for all, expatriates these days are more likely to move back and forward between Australia and other countries as opportunities present.Fullilove and Fuller back this up with plenty of data. One of the more interesting graphs is Figure 2.3 which shows a comparison of the percentage of people leaving vs resident population;
- Manager/Administrators : 11% leaving, 9% resident
- Professionals : 26% leaving, 19% resident
- Associate Professionals : 6% leaving, 14% resident
- Trade Persons : 4% leaving, 13% resident
- Clerical/Sales/Services : 9% leaving, 14% resident
- Labourers : 1% leaving, 9% resident
These people overseas are culturally part of Australia. There may be ways they could be incorporated more into Australian activities. ..... Australia is more than geography. Australia is its people.This is true, I have lived twenty-six years in Australia and seven in America. I speak like an Australian and remain culturally an Australian. I think it is cultural naivety and immaturity that leads many Australians to think that being Australian requires living in Australia. Culture is an ephemeral aspect, and doesn't follow arbitrary borders of nation-states. That is culture's power and wonder. When I go back to Australia I feel more comfortable there, I don't suffer any cultural shocks which I still do in the US. People even speak like me, and the little social and cultural mores that get taken for granted, can be wonderfully comforting. By the same token, I am not going to deny myself a great adventure or new opportunities just to remain cloaked in a cultural comfort zone. I suspect for many Australians, their discovery of Australian culture only came when they left Australia's shores. Once you get outside of the country, and even in anglosphere countries like the USA and UK, it is pretty bloody obvious that Australia has a strong and unique culture. I got a greater respect for Australian culture when I went through six months of culture shock in the New York region. It was wonderful - a life expanding experience. Their Recommendations Fullilove and Chloe have several recommendations for the Australian Government and Australian private industry. The main thrust of their recommendations is to point out that there is a large, well educated and influential Diaspora that wants to be included - and that government and industry have largely forgotten, dismissed or ignored them.
1. The Australian government should lead from the top by embracing the Australian Diaspora rhetorically. It should sharpen its interaction with expatriates through reforms to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including the establishment of a coordinating unit within the Department.These recommendations have a strong government focus. The overseas voting procedures are harsh, which I ran up against recently. No Australian should be dropped off the electoral roll; unless they choose to. Also the Diaspora has no-one in parliament representing their issues exclusively, having a minister for the Diaspora would be of benefit. Especially in areas such as getting our spouses work visas and the like with ease. Making it easy for us to move back and forth between countries. Many of us have families that are international, so this would be of massive benefit. As to the Government reaching out rhetorically to the Diaspora, well they can bugger off. Get an independent foreign policy and defence force first and I may take the government seriously internationally. Also dump that retarded Union Jack on the Australian flag as well as the Queen of England. It makes us look like a poodle nation. Basically, how about the government acts with the humble confidence and independence on the world stage that the Diaspora does first, before they reach out to us "rhetorically". They will be judged by our standard, not us by theirs. Not sure what the non-profits reaching out to the Diaspora as a source of revenue does or means. Why do I care? Why would I give my greenbacks to an Australian non-profit. Maybe they mean think-tanks, not charities? Not certain about that recommendation. We aren't a money pit. Smacks too much of the Diaspora being an untapped resource to bleed dry, rather than involve the Diaspora into Australian life. My Recommendations Or how to have the Diaspora take the Australian Government seriously. The Diaspora is handling itself on the world stage with confidence, independence and wonderful aplomb. We are everywhere, in larger numbers than ever before, and in all sorts of positions of responsibility. We are doing so without any cultural cringe or social shirk - we are firm believers that our solutions are superior and that our ability to provide those solutions are superior. So what would be the first recommendation to the Australian Government?
2. All sectors should energise their networking with the Diaspora, particularly those sectors in which Australia can gain from better international collaboration and information exchange.
3. Institutions should strengthen expatriate linkages through short term return fellowships.
4. Non-profit organisations should pursue the fundraising opportunity offered by the Diaspora, including combined efforts to achieve benefits of scale.
5 Government should reform overseas voting procedures to better accommodate expatriates, and establish a joint parliamentary standing committee on the Diaspora.
6 Government agencies should collect more and better quality data on the Diaspora.
- Act with the same confidence and independence on the world stage the Australian Diaspora does.
- Don't disenfranchise us.
- Ensure we have an electorate that is external to Australia, and a representative in Parliament.
- Have a Minister for the Diaspora.
- Australia must be a Republic.
- Get the Union Jack off the Australian flag.
Comments
Then when the expats return, they are back in the political porcess and loose the drive to lobby for expat enfranchisement. The only solution I see is to some how \'rev up\' the returning expats to lobby on arrival back in the country. Hard to do...