Speaking of Sydney's Chinese circle: foreign students, old immigrants, new immigrants, office workers, there is a group we have been ignoring, that is, illegal Chinese black people.
Black people, refers to illegal workers. They came to Australia via an Australian e-travel visa that allows holders to stay in Australia for three months, but does not have legal rights to work.
If caught by the Australian authorities, the only next time is-repatriate.
The black people of Sydney are mainly concentrated in many Chinese areas of Sydney, such as Campsie, Auburn, Lidcombe, Berala, and Burwood.
As Chinese, we must come into contact with the black people, the places where they appear: restaurants, cleaning companies, moving companies, etc., which are closely connected to our daily lives.
And Australian media, recently also published an article about this group walking in the grey area.
The article tells of a reporter's direct face-to-face contact with the black people. From this article, also directly reflects the current situation and feelings of the black people.
The current situation of the black people: living in tears, living in the crevice.
For highly educated and English-speaking people, it is not very difficult to get legal residency status in Australia, so many "black" local people belong to the low level of education and are the lowest level of society.
By contrast, refugees from war-torn countries have abandoned their homeland completely, but are much more fortunate than those who have darkened.
Because those who black not only gave up their motherland, but also was not accepted by their own "second hometown", most of them ended in tragedy, the perfect ending is rare.
Lao Zhang has been in Australia for more than 30 years (estimated to be around 1990). He is a black man, who has no identity / green card. He used to be a white-collar of a domestic company and has a daughter in his family. I stayed in Australia on a business trip.
He couldn't do anything else after he was in Australia, because he had no identity, but he didn't want to go to the farm, because he grew up in the countryside and planted enough land. So I did everything I could to find a relationship and went into a Chinese restaurant. A lot of people say washing dishes, building, cleaning the street, cleaning the toilet is the lowest class of work, the bottom of the people. And the black people are actually the bottom of the people, even to the bank to open an account can not open.
Start washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant, all the way to the chef. The student who washes dishes costs $8 / hour, while Lao Zhang only has $5 / hour. You can't complain, because someone else's boss is willing to take great risks to take you in. You thank them for being too late, let alone complain. The result of the complaint is that you lose your job and your boss is fined, not win-win, but both losers and losers.
Lao Zhang once cut 200 kilograms of beef a day. You know, in a restaurant, cutting 200 kilograms of beef softens people's hands. This kind of naked exploitation is common to black people, including sex workers, and those who work on farms, are exploited by their bosses.
But it is in such a gap to survive, in the beautiful and strange second hometown struggle. Relatives once told me that Lao Zhang has been sending money home for more than 20 years to support his family, including his daughter.
The mob was frightened in Sydney, afraid of immigration, afraid to go to the bank, had to pay Cash to receive exploitation from his boss, did not dare to return home, and lived in a slit.
"whatever the salary, we can only accept it. Although we feel that the salary is low, we have no choice. "
According to reports, "black work" black people "usually live together, rent a very small house. Sometimes in order to avoid immigration inspection, a few times a month to move home.
An article on a Chinese-language forum in Australia called "an Australian black confessions," says that "in order to save rent, there are usually a lot of black people subletting a flat together." Every day before we go out, we hang an old shirt in the window, no matter whether it's sunny or rainy, if anyone gets caught, put it away, and the people who come back late will know something is wrong. "
Black people's voice: we just want to make money!
(The Conversation), an Australian online news review site, conducted an online survey of "illegal workers in Australia", involving a total of 46 illegal workers. Most of them are between the ages of 20 and 40. During the interview, an illegal migrant worker said:
"I don't want to live in Australia, I only want to make money to support my family."
Another female illegal migrant worker said:
"I'm a single mother, and the reason I came to Australia was to have the money to raise my children."
Everyone is forced by life to come to a foreign country, listening to the language that does not understand. Some people are deceived by the intermediary, but since there is no way to get on the thief's boat, they all hold the mentality of "one way to the dark".
For example, a retired teacher in his fifties said:
"the agencies are advertising themselves. To tell the truth, the first time I saw that kind of advertising, I said I could go abroad and earn a lot of money. I thought this was my chance to work in Australia. "
The interviewee and her husband were reported to have borrowed A $8500 from the agency before arriving in Australia, while her husband remained in the country before retiring. But it was not until she arrived in Australia that she realized that she was holding a tourist visa, which was not allowed to work in Australia.
The agents made a lot of money under the guise of "working abroad." Despite false and misleading information, it is difficult for regulators to investigate these agencies.
epilogue
Black people, as the bottom of Australia, are pitiful, hateful and pathetic. What is hateful is why to choose this road, poor and sad is their situation, in the double torment of the body and mind, daily living in terror.
Dare not fly, dare not return to see family, dare not and boss theory.
There is little chance that you can stay, you don't know English, you don't know a few big characters, and you can't afford to pay your tuition.
Do not dare to return to the country, the end of the country dare not imagine. Without a visa, the airport will be arrested, no money, families dare not bear the burden of fines.
Only across the ocean, doing hard work, with a small amount of money, living in fear, occasionally idle miss their family.
You can't back up, you can't do it before.
Live in the gap of society, in the gap of the law, but also in the gap of life.
This is 60, 000 black people in Australia.