You Are Welcome Here - A Response to Yesterday's Protests
Yesterday’s anti-immigration protests in Melbourne’s CBD left me with a heavy heart and a lot to unpack. While I wasn’t there myself - frankly, the thought of encountering neo-Nazis on a weekend family outing doesn’t exactly scream “fun day out” - the images and stories filtering through social media painted a picture that’s deeply troubling for anyone who believes in the Australia I thought we were building together.
What struck me most was reading about families who chose to stay home for safety reasons, healthcare workers questioning whether they want to keep serving a community that seems to reject them, and immigrants feeling genuinely unwelcome in a country they’ve helped build. That’s not the Melbourne I know, and it’s certainly not the Australia I want my teenage daughter to inherit.
The irony of some of these protesters is almost too much to handle. One person mentioned babysitting for a couple who attended the anti-immigration rally - a couple where one partner immigrated from Northern Europe, the other from Southeast Asia, they speak an Asian language at home, and practice a non-Christian religion. The cognitive dissonance there is staggering. It really drives home that this isn’t about immigration policy or infrastructure capacity - it’s about who gets to be considered “Australian enough” based on the colour of their skin.
Working in IT here, I’m surrounded by colleagues from India, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and countless other countries. These are people who’ve chosen to make Australia home, who contribute their skills to our economy, pay their taxes, send their kids to local schools, and support our communities. The idea that they should feel unsafe walking through our CBD is genuinely infuriating.
The discussion around immigration numbers and infrastructure pressure isn’t inherently racist - there are legitimate policy debates to be had about planning, housing, and public services. But when these conversations get hijacked by people marching alongside neo-Nazis, when they become about excluding people based on their ethnicity or religion rather than addressing systemic issues, we’ve lost the plot entirely.
What really gets to me is how these protests ignore the contributions immigrants have made to Melbourne’s identity. The coffee culture we all love? Thank Italian immigrants. The incredible food scene that makes Collins Street and Smith Street destinations? Thank waves of migration from across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. The universities that are economic powerhouses for our state? They’re sustained by international students who often stay and become permanent residents.
Someone in the online discussions mentioned how healthcare workers - many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants - are questioning whether they want to keep serving a community that seems to reject them. The thought of our nurses, doctors, and aged care workers walking away because they feel unwelcome should terrify anyone with half a brain. We’re talking about people who literally kept us alive during the pandemic.
The most heartbreaking comment I read was from someone suggesting all immigrants should strike for a week to show what happens when we’re gone. Part of me thinks that might be exactly what some people need to understand how essential immigration is to this country’s functioning. But the fact that we’ve reached a point where people feel that desperate speaks to a massive failure in leadership and community.
What gives me hope, though, is seeing the counter-protests and the outpouring of support online. For every person marching with fascists, there seem to be dozens more saying “this is not my Australia.” The real Australia is the one where my Indian colleague’s mum sends samosas to the office, where my daughter’s best friend’s family invited us to their Chinese New Year celebration, where my local Vietnamese café owner knows exactly how I like my batch brew.
The protesters can chant “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” all they want, but they don’t get to define what that means. Being Australian isn’t about where your great-grandparents were born or what language you speak at home. It’s about choosing to be part of this messy, complicated, beautiful experiment in multiculturalism that we’ve been building for decades.
To everyone who felt unwelcome yesterday - you are welcome here. You belong here. Australia is better because you’re here, and those of us who understand that will keep saying it, loudly and clearly, until the message drowns out the hate.