It is the mark of a privileged person, in the Before Times, that they never really had to think about borders. Their passport has allowed them to go pretty much anywhere, and to come and go from their home country as they pleased. Until Covid-19 hit and borders became hard, many Australians held, at least in their minds and imagination, a sort of dual citizenship. The first citizenship was Australia, a citizen of the world was the second.
If you came of age in or after the 1990s, reciprocal working visas, cheap flights, the opening up of the international job market and the subsequent ease of movement lulled lucky Australians into thinking that borders were irrelevant.
For the rich, talented, well-connected, well-educated and those under 31, visas for Australians in places such as the UK, Canada, the US and Europe were easy enough to come by. Dubbed “gold-collar workers”, so many Australians enjoyed the fruits of participating in a global economy that by 2004, a Senate committee was set up to quantify the number of Australians that had left and to investigate how their skills and experience might one day circulate back into the Australian job market and economy. By 2018 there were estimated to be around one million Australians living and working overseas. Freedom of movement was a right that was so fundamental as to be barely considered. That is until this year, when Australia became one of the only democracies in the world that has effectively banned its citizens from leaving the country. Now an Australian citizen or permanent resident is not permitted to travel outbound unless they apply to Border Force for an exemption. The criteria is strict. For sound public health reasons, we’ve built a fortress unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes This long run of hypermobility – ruinous for the environment with all those flights but enriching for those selling their skills to the highest bidder in the global marketplace – came to a dramatic halt on 25 March. What a strange thing it is to log on to Instagram these days and see your British or European friends enjoying holidays on Greek Islands or in Portugal, while we’re locked in our own country. For sound public health reasons, we’ve built a fortress unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes. Almost no one gets in and no one gets out. So far there’s been widespread public support for such far-reaching measures. And in Australia, like New Zealand, there seems to be some antipathy towards those who are stuck overseas and trying to get back in.They had their chance in March, goes the refrain from politicians, including the prime minister and New South Wales premier. Suck it up. An Essential poll has shown last week that a majority of respondents support a hardline approach on border closures. Whether this is due to concerns about more virus getting into Australia, or latent, cultural resentments about those who leave – a new manifestation of tall poppy syndrome – it’s hard to say.
