Uni Study Shows Some Aussies Think Refugees Are Given $10K Cash & New Shoes

The University of Melbourne recently set up some focus testing to take a look at the current look of Islamophobia in Australia. 

And as you were probably already aware, it’s pretty grim, and filled with uninformed miscreants who get all their factually incorrect opinions from made-up, badly designed infographics shared by baby boomers on Facebook. (SORRY NOT SORRY )
The study revealed that many of the contributors were concerned about the ‘Islamisation of Australia’, and were “unshakeably convinced” that Muslim people are regularly attempting to remove their right to display Christmas lights on houses and sing carols in schools – but not one of them actually had first-hand or even second-hand experiences of this. 

The study found there was ‘scant knowledge’ of Australia’s international legal obligations to people seeking asylum, and so terms such as “illegals” and “queue-jumpers” were easily adopted and freely used. Majority of people surveyed also largely supported the Turnbull government’s tough stance on “unauthorised” boat arrivals.
The qualitative research involved 10 focus group discussions in metropolitan, regional and remote locations in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, and were all held towards the end of last year. 
The focus groups showed that there were two major drivers of negative attitudes towards refugees and Muslim migrants – seeing Muslim people as ‘intolerant’ of other religions and races, and seeing Islam as closely associated with the threat of terrorism. 
The focus group also found that a number of participants experienced feelings that refugees were given preferential treatment and expensive material goods, with one participant saying, 
“They are running around in new Nike shoes. They had all been given a place, you know … You have homeless people that haven’t even got a place in Sydney, yet these people just walk in get a place [and] $10,000, new shoes.”
So… ahem – we’re fkn floored. Refugees are given a package of extremely basic household goods, are helped to find a house, and have the opportunity to receive Centrelink payments and benefits. Because they’ve been through awful, horrible shit we will likely never experience, they’re in a foreign country, they are having to start their lives over again against their will, and they damn well need our help. 
It’s one of those sentiments that we already knew existed, and there’s a very high chance that a Venn diagram of these people and United Patriots Front members would just straight up be a circle, but still. Seeing it in black & white as a part of monitored study is something else.
Source: The Age
Photo: United Patriots Front / Facebook

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