Racism to South African INdians

[Brayden]

Hi Ladies and Gentleman

 

I have been presented with the opportunity to Move to Australia on a 189 Visa( I believe that is the one that you can go anywhere). However my fear, being a South African Indian with a fairly dark complexion, is that i would be a victim of racism in the new country. I have heard many stories of South Africans actually returning to SA because of this. I'm aware that not all of Australia is bad when it comes to this but i would just like you advice of areas that i should avoid or actually aim towards. I'm 25 and basically I will be completely by myself in  this new Country. Hence, I do not want to be a victim of any of that drama. 

[Riekie]

I don't know who told you this but it's BS.  Come to Australia!  It's the true rainbow nation, you'll see. 

[ChrisH]

I think it would depend on what industry you are in.  I work in the IT industry and I can tell you that I work with mostly emigrants of all flavors. 

[rozellem]

I have personally not heard of this being the case, but you could ask the people who will really know.  There is a facebook page called "South Africans living in Sydney", there are a number of members of Indian South African heritage.  Perhaps reach out to them and ask.

[Nallan]

Hi Brayden,

 

I am of Indian descent, there is racism all over the world, there is sexism all over the world. Women don't just give up just because the world is geared against them. If you have this opportunity please use it, you will love  it here. If you encounter racism its a small minority. I don't know what you heard but there is no drama here. The only reason people go back would be  a failure to integrate or missing family but not racism.

[tcmiller]

Where I work there is no racism. My team is very mixed, we have an Aussie, a couple of Indian people, some Chinese, a few from the UK and a couple of South Africans :) There's no racism and everyone is given a fair go.

Having said that, as Nallan has said there will always be a small minority that are racist but I find its almost non existent and definitely not tolerated here at all.

[Nev]

We employ 20 people in our company, 10 in Australia and 10 overseas and we are a really mixed bag, some white, some Indian, some south africans, and a Chinese guy, our overseas resources are in South Africa, Philippians, India, Europe, South america, 

 

Seriously dont stress it, racism exists everywhere, but i have seen every little here and our company is case in point, everyone just gets along

[Mel-B]

Nope, racism is not a thing in a professional environment. People are very multicultural and accepting in Australia. WAYYYYYY more than in SA. SA should take notes from us over here on how to be a proper rainbow nation.

[zamunda]

My wife and I are dark brown skin you could say. Before we moved to Aus, many so-called "Australia experts" told us the same thing. After been here for close to 7 years I can say it is all complete BS! 

 

When the Sydney siege took place I witnessed something quite pleasantly surprising making me proud to be part of this country. Since the gunman was a Muslim there was an initial fear amongst that community (we have a number of Muslim friends)  that there would be a reprisal. There was none of that. the Twitter #IwillWalkWithYou went all over the country with people from all communities coming together to protect Muslims (especially from the white community). A true testament to what the greater population of this country values. 

 

Something you need to keep in mind though is sarcasm is part of the Aussie culture. It is by no means intended to be prejudicial in any way. It is certainly not racism. I remember in our early days we walked into a pub and whilst seated at the counter the person next to me asked "so which boat did you get off?" in reply I said it was far more luxurious than the one his family came in. Since then he has become one of our best mates. He's always been there for us during our highs and lows over the past years. 

 

Aussies are very chilled out welcoming people. But being humans there can be personality clashes in the odd occasions. Don't take this as racism. 

 

Also worth mentioning is, once you get here do the social integration. Go out there to make friends. Don't stick to one community only. Also, don't wait for others to come to make friends with you. Like my dad used to say "don't get stuck in one culture when there is so much more to experience through friendships."

 

Having lived here, when I do visit RSA from time to time I find there is more prejudices there than I realised when I was living in RSA. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by zamunda

[kandz]

I'm new to this site, and im indian myself female from Durban im married with a beautiful lil baby girl, and my husbands family have now been living in AUS Melbourne for three years and when they first got there, also mentioned slight racism being dark skinned Indians but they have kind of gotten used to the way people are as everyone will never be the same, even though I have heard that my passion to leave SA has not died down, I guess we will always have our opinions but if we don't go ahead and give it a try we will never know of the greener pastures that could like ahead. I really love SA but is sad that we have to leave for a better life.