We begin this week's episode by looking at the hard lockdown on the 9 public housing towers in Melbourne at the start of this month. As well as illuminating the problems with public housing in Victoria, this crisis also highlighted migrant experiences during Covid-19, the failure to communicate properly to marginalised communities and the lack of respect they were afforded compared to wealthier communities.
We take a look at migrant experiences since the start of Coronavirus, and how many of Australia's valuable non-citizen workers (and taxpayers) have lost their jobs and been left without any assistance from the government, having to turn to charities and often unable to go home because of closed borders or lack of funds.
The treatment of migrants on temporary visas in Australia was a problem long before Coronavirus, but like so many things, the last few months has brought it to a crisis point. We end the discussion by talking about the injustice of the temporary visa and the debilitating limbo that many migrants and refugees are forced to exist in. Not to mention the exorbitant amounts of money they pay for visa applications which are often rejected.
References
https://theconversation.com/melbourne-tower-lockdowns-unfairly-target-already-vulnerable-public-housing-residents-142041
https://www.riserefugee.org/north-melbourne-and-flemington-hard-lockdown/
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2020/jul/07/inside-hard-lockdown-of-melbourne-public-housing-towers
https://coronavirus.tas.gov.au/travellers-and-visitors
https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/davidcoleman/Pages/Coronavirus-and-Temporary-Visa-holders.aspx
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-05/australia-migrant-workers-temporary-visa-holders-coronavirus/12301394
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/for-australia-s-temporary-visa-holders-the-coronavirus-crisis-means-everything-is-broken