This ‘Project’ Story About A Small Victorian Country Town Embracing Burmese Refugees Is Bloody Lovely

Australia’s reputation for dealing with asylum seekers and refugees has been in the can for, oh, about fourteen years or so, and it’s seemingly getting worse by the week. Tony Abbott’s infamous “nope, nope, nope” response to the Rohingya refugee crisis in the waters of various south-east Asian nations has prompted strident criticism from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, among others, but it’s only the latest in a depressingly long string of instances where Australia has consciously denied its obligations to people seeking shelter.

All of which makes this story just that little bit nicer. A few nights ago, The Project profiled the small west Victorian town of Nhill, which like many rural communities has been struggling with an ageing, shrinking population that’s caused businesses and civic life to suffer and threatened the town’s very existence. Nhill’s story is far from unique; population decline in rural towns has been a serious worry for some time as young people move to the state capitals seeking wider job opportunities and tertiary education, leaving a steadily older population behind them that can’t support the local economy.

But Nhill has experienced a revival in the last few years thanks to an influx of Burmese refugees. The Karen people are a persecuted minority in Myanmar, and thousands have fled Myanmar/Burma to start new lives in first-world countries. Several hundred Karen have put down roots in Nhill, turning the town from a place on the slide to a regional success story, both culturally and economically. The locals and the Karen have embraced one another, with AFL programs, cultural festivals and language classes bringing the two unlikely groups closer together.

It’s the kind of quiet success multiculturalism has brought to a host of regional towns over Australia’s history — towns like Albury and Young in southern NSW have benefited from influxes of Afghan and Chinese migrants, often refugees. It’s a sign that Australia’s famous suspicion of asylum seekers might not be as rock-solid as seemingly accepted, and that accepting refugees into Australian society can solve far more problems than it causes.