Professor PooKong Kee

Director of Asia Institute

By Karina Foo

Australia faces a steady growing population of Asians and it seems to have welcomed this culture as part of its own. In Melbourne’s CBD, you’ll observe that almost half of the people are Asians – most are university students or young working adults residing in the city.

Director of Asia Institute, Professor PooKong Kee has observed this in his years of research in studying the population migration starting from the early years of Australia’s growing cultural diversity.

“There are around 12-13% of Asian Immigrants in Australia now. If you include Asian born Australians, the total population percentage of Asians in the country is 20% – and growing. In ratio, there are more Asians here than in the US or Canada,” he said.

This research is close to his heart as Kee, a prominent researcher, is also an Asian migrant born in Johore and spent his university years and most of his career in Australia including Adelaide and Canberra.

His recent teachings and research interests include the causes, processes and consequences of the global movement of people, Asian Diasporas, and Asian-Pacific affairs generally.

“You cannot have a thriving culture if you reject Asia as you will not cultivate that relationship that is so important for the growth of your country.”

One of his more recent research has sparked the interest of many, including property investor and mogul, Jason Yeap who helped to fund part of Kee’s study.

“We wanted to look at the first, second and third generation Australians as well as new migrants. The main purpose is to find out if this population sector are adequately represented in the society. Yeap’s personal interest is studying this population within the public sector which includes public services, educational institutions and hospitals,” explained Kee.

The issue

Kee made a major discovery in his research showing that Asians might not be well represented in certain areas.

“For example, the bulk of students in most universities doing medical courses are Asians, but you don’t see many Asians occupying top positions in Australian hospitals,” he said.

This has unfolded plenty of questions on his part and continues to find the answer to this big discrepancy between the number of top Asian students and top positions in the health and medical industry.

When asked if this could be the result of racism, Kee said it was possible, but emphasised that today’s racism is targeted mostly towards the Muslim community.

“This may be due to mainstream media and the news we’re exposed to on social media. For Australia, the 1970’s saw the first arrival of the “boat people”. A very highly regarded and prominent historian from the University of Melbourne sparked a series of negative comments on whether Australia was able to accommodate these new arrivals.

“This started years of long and heated discussions about the potential problems of Asian migration and that opened up the context for politicians like Pauline Hanson to get on board to side with such an issue,” said Kee.

But over time, he also remarked that Asians in particularly the Chinese, are perceived as an influential group.

Anglo to Asian

South East Asians and the Chinese have used Australia as an education and tourist destination over 30 years ago and continues on today. While the Anglo Australian still remains in power, things are slowly changing. Despite Anglo Australians still holding top positions in the medical field, there are many Asians who are also working their way to the top as assistants, nurses and doctors.

Kee pointed out that this gradual shift has also been observed in other industries like law, accountancy and finance. Three decades ago, Australia was a country that was a true reflection of the Northern European Anglo countries, but these days, it has become more of a multicultural diverse hub – leaning more towards the exposure of Asian communities.

Former Prime Minister John Howard was the first major politician who started a close relationship with China and that got the ball rolling for Australia – Asian relations.

“It may hold true that Asians coming into Australia does raise the bar in terms of education and scores as many Asian families send their children for extra tuition (coaching) and attaining higher marks than their peers as a result.

Many Australians realise that the future of the country does rely heavily on Asia and Asians. You cannot have a thriving culture if you reject Asia as you will not cultivate that relationship that is so important for the growth of your country,” said Kee.

This is a positive sign that Australia has come to accept the influx of Asian migrants and as the years go by, there will only be more progress of collaboration and acceptance.

 

随着澳大利亚日与俱增的亚洲人口，这也似乎成为当地文化的特色部分。而在墨尔本的中心商务区(CBD)，你会发现几乎有一半是亚洲脸孔-大多数是居住城市里的大学生或年轻就业群体。

亚洲研究院院长纪宝坤教授表示，根据他长年进行的人口迁移研究显示，这一切是从该国多年来日益增长的多样文化开始。

目前，澳大利亚的亚洲移民比例占了12-13%。如果还要计算亚洲出生的澳大利亚人，那么就是占了总人口的20%，且数据一直上升中。这与美国或加拿大的亚洲人口相比显然更庞大。

作为著名研究员，同时也是亚洲移民，纪宝坤一直保持着对于此项研究的关注度。他出生在马来西亚柔佛州，却在澳大利亚阿德莱德和堪培拉先后度过本身的大学时光和工作就业。

他最近的教学和探索焦点包括全球人口流动的原因、过程和后果，还有亚洲移民和亚太事务。

“如果你拒绝亚洲，不可能拥有蓬勃的多元文化，也会错失培养对于国家发展来说非常重要的关系。”

而他近期的一项研究也引起许多人的关注，其中房地产大亨与慈善家叶绍礼(Jason Yeap)资助了部分研究经费。

“我们想观察第一、第二代和第三代澳大利亚亚裔及新移民的生活就业轨迹。而主要目的是聚焦上述群体在社会中是否有充分的代表性。叶绍礼个人对于目标群体在政府公共部门，包括公共服务，教育机构和医院里的生存状态较为关注。”

心脏的课题
另外，纪宝坤在研究中发现，亚洲人在某些领域未能获得良好发挥。“例如，大学内的医学系大多数都是亚洲学生，但在澳大利亚的医院和医疗体系，亚洲人却没办法占据重要位置。”

这个发现也令他对此展开更详尽持续的研究观察，尤其在亚洲顶尖学生的数量和医疗行业最高职位之间的巨大差异中寻求答案。

他并不排除是种族主义元素所造成的局面，但认为现今的种族主义主要针对穆斯林社区。

这一切都是因为主流媒体和社交网络上曝光的新闻所导向。对澳大利亚来说，上世纪70年代是“船民(新移民)”首次出现。而来自墨尔本大学，一名受人尊敬和杰出的历史学家也曾对澳大利亚是否能够适应这些新移民提出了一系列负面评论。

“这也开启了民众对亚洲移民潜在问题进行长达数年的激烈讨论，也为如Pauline Hanson一般的政治家们提供参合到这课题上的机会。”

他认为，但随着时间的推移，亚洲人尤其是华人，已被视为一个具备影响力的群体。

英国到亚洲
30多年前，东南亚人和华人把澳大利亚作为教育和旅游目的地，至今仍在持续。

纪宝坤说，尽管英裔澳大利亚人仍在掌权，但情况逐渐转变。即使前者仍然占据着医疗领域的最高职位，但也有许多亚洲人正以助手、护士和医生的身份在贡献。

“这种渐变模式相继出现在法律、会计和金融等其他行业。”

澳大利亚在30年前是北欧英裔国家模式写照，但如今，它已摇身一变成为多元化中心，并且显然更倾向于亚洲社区。

前首相John Howard是第一个与中国建立密切关系的关键政治家，他也为澳大利亚和亚洲之间的关系搭建了桥梁。

“亚洲人来到澳大利亚确实提高了当地教育和成绩水平，而且许多亚洲家庭都把孩子送到额外辅导班，也让他们的成绩比同龄人高出一截。”

“许多澳大利亚人也意识到，这个国家的未来很大程度上倚重于亚洲和亚洲人。如果你拒绝亚洲，不可能拥有蓬勃的多元文化，也会错失培养对于国家发展非常重要的关系。”

这是一个积极的迹象，表明澳大利亚已经接受亚洲移民的涌入，随着时间不断磨合，将会使合作和接受进程更顺遂。