Free Migration Agents
Free Services for Eligible Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Humanitarian Entrants to New South Wales, Australia
When Sydneysiders think of King Street, they might think of the eccentric characters, trendy coffee shops, vintage clothing stores and quality restaurants. A short 1 km walk from the AFFMA offices (located near Newtown Station), on the quieter south end of King Street sits a quirky coffee shop with a difference. Parliament on King is changing people’s lives, one refugee at a time.
The coffee shop / book store / meeting place / community hub can be found at 632 King Street and employs and trains refugees and asylum seekers so that they can have a smoother and more comfortable transition into Australian society. Myself (James Gounis) and fellow AFFMA volunteers Megan Sturges and Vijhai Utheyan caught up with the co-owner of Parliament on King, Ravi Prasad, to hear first hand what the coffee shop does and how it has a positive impact on so many refugee and asylum seekers’ lives in Sydney.
Ravi joked with us that he set up the café during a ‘mid-life crisis’. He actually came up with the idea when he was first seeing his wife-to-be, when riding around the city togoether on a Vespa looking at corner stores, book stores and coffee shops. He and his wife discussed the idea of one day owning a house with a shop-front that could act as a book store, coffee shop and community meeting point.
When living in a unit with his wife and two children, the couple decided to chase their dreams and began looking for the ideal place. Ravi always had an interest in race relations and the racial undercurrent within Australian society, particularly when he was growing up. His father would experience racism on the streets of Adelaide, and his mother was arrested during the dramatic protests in the 1970’s when the national Rugby Union team of South Africa, the Springboks, toured Australia during the Apartheid era. Ravi has always held strong views on social justice and race relations and he and his wife decided that a café set up to help refugees and asylum seekers learn vital skills and feel welcome was what they wanted to do.
“Refugees and asylum seekers leave everything behind when they make the courageous decision to leave their homelands. They leave their networks, their families, their communities, their educational qualifications, fleeing for their life” Ravi mused. Ravi further noted that whilst giving up so much already to travel here, asylum seekers that are eventually recognised as refugees in Australia and make it out of detention centres and into the community are “left on their own to start a new life, without family networks, educational qualifications, work experience and job references”. Ravi was aware that some refugees may feel disempowered in their new homeland and need paid employment as the majority do not want to live on welfare. Recognising these extreme difficulties spurred Ravi and his wife on to create the amazing café and community hub that stands today.
Ravi further reflected that asylum seekers and refugees are a “client of everyone”. So instead of setting up a café that employed them and had Ravi and his wife as “the boss”, the café and catering business operates to ensure all employees and volunteers are treated equally. The purpose of this is to, in Ravi’s words, “create social, cultural and economic empowerment and participation through providing, training, work experience and paid work” in a welcoming workplace. He provided us with the example that just today (22 September 2016), three refugees landed kitchen jobs at the café, paid at a very competitive rate that is much more substantial than a lot of the hospitality work Ravi has heard about from his contacts, where refugees and asylum seekers are often exploited and paid below minimum wage.
Ravi and his wife operate their café and catering business employing refugees as equals. The employees are encouraged to “express and share their culture, stories, heritage and cuisines”. The employees set the menu and management of the business operates as more of a bottom up approach. The catering side of the business, whilst often providing sandwiches for corporate clients, is well known for providing traditional dishes from the homelands of the refugee employees.
The café has developed a strong community following in the local community. Every 6-8 weeks the café hosts a dinner night where refugees prepare traditional dishes and around 50 people pay $25 a head to get involved in the celebrations. The next dinner will be held in October (date yet to be decided so keep tuned into the Parliament on King facebook page). The theme of the dinner is stated by Ravi, very tongue-in-cheekly as “Dinner with everyone that Pauline Hanson would like to exclude from Australia”.
The café hosts other events such as the life drawing class scheduled for tonight also (22 September 2016). The café has received a huge amount of support from the local community and volunteers are able to use their own skills and ideas to help the refugees. Recently a young 20-year-old volunteer and customer of the café suggested to Ravi that she could teach a photography class to the refugee employees. The volunteer did not have enough digital SLR cameras so Ravi, on her suggestion, posted on the Parliament on King Facebook page requesting some assistance from the community and three cameras were donated in no time. The same happened for a sewing class, where one machine was needed and seven ended up being donated.
Prominent people from all walks of life also frequent the café, including musicians, actors, politicians and other celebrities. Even as we were chatting with Ravi, multi ARIA award winner Joseph Tawadros walked in to catch up with Ravi. Everyone is welcome at Parliament on King and local mums, dads, families, students, workers, volunteers all drop in to catch up and socialise. The café has a remarkably friendly vibe.
Certain agencies are strong supporters of the café, often arranging their corporate catering including various NSW Government Departments, St Vincent’s Hospital, School for Social Enterprise, Randwick City Council, University of Technology Sydney and many more. Recently the café catered its largest event yet for the Jewish Board of Deputies. Ravi notes that the café receives lots of support from various faith based organisations, noting that it’s all about “human rights issues, not religious beliefs of being on the left or right side of politics”. The catering for the Jewish Board of Directors provided approximately 60 hours paid employment including preparation time and service hours for the event.
Ravi explained to us that he had never run such an enterprise before and that basically “everything is a challenge”. He commented that he is “constantly learning” but was quick to point out that he “really enjoys” what he is doing and wants to be able to continue in this role “indefinitely”.
Some specific challenges Ravi told us about included the logistics of operating such an enterprise, understanding how everything works (including kitchen and café equipment) and the compliance burdens faced (including waits of up to 9 months for a liquor licence, 4 months for outside seating permission and 8 months for the initial development approval for the café).
Ravi was very clear when he said that “anyone is welcome to help”. Ravi appears willing to listen to any idea a volunteer may have, providing they can provide a skill or service that will assist in developing the skills or knowledge of his refugee employees (see the photography class and sewing class as an example). If you have an idea that you think can help out Ravi and his employees, feel free to contact him here:
http://www.parliamentonking.com/contact
An example of how a member of the community assisted the café is Susan, a member of the local Catholic parish. Susan suggested to Ravi that the corporate catering packages provided could be packaged together in a full cultural experience, and thus “Soul Foods Dinner” was born. Susan also had a contact at the Canterbury-Bankstown RSL who, through their community funding arrangements, now offers refugee employees of the café free access to full day training in RSA, Barista, Food Safety, Food Supervisor and other training that was previously provided at the cost to the business.
Ravi reiterated to us that he wants to maintain the café’s “social mission”. He understands that there is a limit to the size of the enterprise and he does not want to risk losing the community feel of the business by expanding to a commercial scale. This is understandable. Ravi is happy for the business to continue helping refugees find work and a place to feel welcome. He described how rewarding it is to see refugees use the business not only to gain skills in the kitchen or in the café, but to develop their language skills and move into employment in fields of their interest or education from back home.
Ravi says he knows the café is still achieving its mission when a refugee employee feels so comfortable working there that she then recruits her sister, brother and mother to contribute to the cooking of meals for one of the recent dinners. Ravi reflects that the café provides an environment “safe enough for someone to involve all of their family members, feel economic empowerment by getting paid, and enjoying themselves at the same time, laughing, eating, talking and sharing stories”.
We asked Ravi what he thinks the biggest impact the café has on his refugee employees. He responded poignantly, advising us to “seek out their opinions, listen to their voice, as too many people talk on behalf of refugees”. We hope to take Ravi’s advice and interview some of the employees in coming newsletters.
Further information and upcoming events can be accessed through the cafe’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ParliamentOnKing/
James Gounis, LLB, DipLegPrac.
Fresh back from Germany where over one million asylum seekers have sought refuge since 2015, I have to report that, at least in Berlin, where I stayed for one month, I saw maybe 20 people in the streets in traditional Islamic attire who may or may not have been people seeking asylum. While the rest of the world is crunching numbers over refugee intakes, Germany is getting on with housing and educating these people.
Yes, right wing political groups are on the rise; however, in any situation, no matter what social or political topic, one will encounter people who are powerless to control their own minds and whose thinking is dominated by negative emotions: fear, blame, hatred and anger.
Senator Pauline Hanson’s Maiden Speech is an example of free speech expressing these negative emotions. However, I believe the criticism she received for having done so as a Senator may be unwarranted as Parliament is an appropriate forum to openly voice ideas and generate discussion, as long as the speaker is a member of Parliament.
The reason is that we need a forum where representatives of a group of people can voice their ideas because: a) otherwise we will never know what thoughts get lodged in people’s minds and b) by voicing those thoughts, they may be prevented from festering, to use common parlance, ‘better out than in’. If negative ideas stay suppressed and are ‘bottled up’, they may turn destructive, leading to independent and random acts of violence.
That is why negative ideas should be welcomed to be voiced publically but only in an appropriate forum, such as Parliament (or privately, for example, in a supportive therapist’s office).
It is not Senator Hanson’s fault that her thoughts are based on negative emotions because she has little self-awareness. However, if Senator Hanson chooses not to become aware of the nature of her thoughts and does not replace them with real facts then any possible negative decisions she makes that are from these thoughts will become her responsibility.
Senator Hanson’s speech was both, brave and naïve. Brave, for her courage to speak her mind. How many people have the guts to do that? Naïve, for actually believing what she thinks is real. Thoughts that are based on fear, blame, hatred and anger are always negative.
FEAR is an acronym for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’ and blame, hatred and anger are negative emotions that result in victim consciousness, such as: ‘I am or Australia is being swamped by Muslims’; ‘I have or we will soon have to live under Islamic rule’; ‘I will or we will soon get blown up’. These thoughts are irrational. Germany is not living under Islamic rule. Terrorism or violence is not isolated to Germany.
Irrational thinking could be a sign of mental illness or it may lead to developing a mental illness. This can lead to destructive action against oneself (self harm) or it may be directed towards others. Voters in favour of Senator Pauline Hanson may likewise be in danger of falling victim to their negative thoughts and emotions and any actions that may eventuate from these thought patterns.
On the positive side, there are ways to shift one’s thinking into ‘rational operative mode’. This can be done by:
How can we change the thought: ‘I will or we will soon get blown up by a refugee from Islamic background’? We can do a fact check. A Google search of the CATO Institute, a conservative think tank, will reveal that: “The chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack committed by an asylum-seeker was one in 2.7 billion a year.”
(http://www.cato.org/blog/terrorism-risk-asylum-seekers-refugees-minnesota-new-york-new-jersey-terrorist-attacks).
On the Australian front, no one is denying that the Lindt Street Café siege in Sydney in 2014 was a real and tragic event and the perpetrator was of Islamic faith. Perspective is really important here and it should be remembered that Man Haron Monis was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He suffered from destructive thought processes that turned into destructive actions; his thoughts were fused to religious overtones but religion was not the cause of his mental illness.
Destructive thought processes are tied to mental illness – they are not tied to Islam! They can also be found in Christianity, as evidenced when a Christian Priest becomes obsessed with raping children. He, too, goes through the same pattern: first comes the thought of sexual desire, accompanied by feelings of superiority then, without intervening therapy, comes the destructive action.
The same pattern occurs in domestic violence that can be perpetrated by a person of any religion or no religion at all. Even in the mind of an agnostic, the thought comes first: “I am not responsible for my anger, my partner is making me angry”: a ‘blaming’ thought is followed by verbal or physical violence, whether or not the perpetrator is of Islamic, Christian or no faith at all. “The thought counts, not the religion.”
Senator Pauline Hanson and her followers have a real chance of evolving if they could be willing to stand back and watch their thoughts. The ‘standing back and observing’ process acts as a circuit breaker. This is step one. It requires training but where there is a will there is a way. Step two of the process presents another challenge: when people want to evolve, they need to let go of their old identify that is keeping them stuck in the same place.
Pauline Hanson carries the same hatred for foreigners today that she carried 20 years ago. The only difference is her focus. Today, she no longer talks about people from Asian background; today her hatred is directed at people from Islamic background: different focus, same identity. That is the reason why her character cannot evolve. Her identity has become her ‘branding’. However, it is no longer serving her – it is keeping her stuck. The only way forward for her character at this stage is a negative spiral further down into hatred.
Nonetheless, her character still has a chance to evolve if she wants to move forward. She would first need to find the courage to give up her identity as a ‘hater’, her current “brand”. If she finds the courage, she has the potential to become a real hero, a real beacon of light, in Parliament, by becoming humble and saying: “I was wrong. I examined my beliefs, I questioned them, I looked at the facts, I have changed my mind, this is now my new vision for Australia…” Sure, she would be “hated” by her followers at first but, over time, she could take them along on her journey of seeing the world differently. It would take enormous courage but I believe she has the potential. She is a courageous woman – only misguided at this point.
My advice to everyone: “Don’t’ blame the religion – blame the thought! Identify it, address it, shift it!” If it is no longer serving you, if it is keeping you stuck in an outdated identity, let the thought go! Let the identity go! Negative thoughts and irrational fears that are allowed to run wild in your mind can potentially destroy you, your family, your relationships, your career, in fact, anyone who you come into contact with will be affected. Before it does, if you are suffering from unhappiness, from anxiety or negative and stressful thoughts, seek help. Why blame others? Why blame refugees? Why blame Islam? Why not work on how we think? We all need to grow. To grow in character and contribute to humanity is a basic human need that brings happiness and fulfillment: (https://www.tonyrobbins.com).
Sabine Lorenz, B.A.,LLB, Grad.Cert.Migration Law, M.Linguistics, Certification in Leadership and Transformational Coaching
MARN: 0956401
Street Address: Association of Fee Free Migration Agents, Sydney, Inc.
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