From a Refugee Camp to the World Cup

When Australia’s number 17, Nestory Irankunda, surged forward on the pitch, shot, and scored, it was not just a football moment. Once you know his background, that image carries a deeper meaning.

Irankunda was born in 2006 in a refugee camp in Kigoma, Tanzania. His parents came from Burundi and had fled their homeland because of war. When he was three months old, he came to Australia with his family. They first settled in Perth and later moved to Adelaide. He did not arrive in Australia as someone who had already been identified as “talent.” He arrived as a baby in a refugee family, a child whose future was still completely unknown.

But Australia gave this child room to grow again. He grew up here, played football in the community, was discovered by the local football system, entered the professional game, and eventually wore the Australian national team shirt on the World Cup stage. What is most moving about this story is not only his personal talent and effort, but the deeper quality it reveals about Australia as an immigrant nation. Australia does not only attract people from around the world who are already successful and fully formed. It also accepts people in hardship and gives them, and their next generation, a chance to begin again.

A truly open country does not only welcome people with degrees, wealth, skills and polished resumes. What is more valuable is that it is willing to believe that human potential does not always appear at the beginning. Many people’s abilities only slowly emerge through safety, education, community, training and social acceptance. A child who looks ordinary today may become an athlete, a doctor, an engineer, a musician or an entrepreneur tomorrow. Or he may simply become an ordinary Australian who works honestly, looks after his family and participates in community life. Together, these people make up modern Australia.

Australia has long been one of the world’s important refugee resettlement countries. It does not simply bring refugees onto its land. It gives them a chance to enter schools, communities, professional systems and public life. The power of Irankunda’s story is that it is not an isolated inspirational story. It is the result of a country’s long-standing structure of openness. A child born in a refugee camp can grow up in Australia and become a national team footballer. That itself is one of the most convincing proofs of Australia’s immigrant society.

Australia’s generosity is not only reflected in refugee resettlement. It has also long participated in global development assistance. For a long time, because China was treated within the international system as a developing country, Australia also supported China’s development through official development assistance, including in areas such as health, education, rural development and governance capacity building. Later, as China’s economic strength grew, Australia gradually ended its large-scale bilateral aid to China, and the relationship shifted from one-way assistance to cooperation on regional and global development issues. The Australian Embassy in China has stated that Australia has largely phased out its bilateral aid to China, and that in 2013 Australia and China signed a memorandum of understanding on development cooperation, recognizing China’s role as an aid provider.

What is even more worth noting is that even during periods when relations between Australia and China were very tense, Australia did not completely cut off small-scale development assistance aimed at grassroots Chinese communities. The Australian Embassy’s Direct Aid Program has continued to exist, supporting small projects related to poverty reduction, sustainable development, women and children, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. The current Australian Embassy page still shows that DAP projects in China continue to accept applications.

This detail says something important about Australia’s national character. Its generosity is not limited to times when political relations are smooth. Nor is it directed only toward people who are already successful, already developed, or already able to offer an obvious return. Australia is still willing to put part of its resources toward specific people, specific communities and specific difficulties. Such assistance may not be large in scale, and it may not be widely seen, but it reflects a stable value judgment: human conditions deserve to be improved, social difficulties deserve a response, and a country’s responsibility should not stop at its own borders.

So when we see Irankunda running on the World Cup pitch, we are not only seeing speed, power and a shot on goal. We are also seeing the character of a country. Australia’s greatness does not only lie in its minerals, land, universities, cities and economic institutions. It lies in its willingness to believe that people from different places can become Australians together. It accepts the world, and it also responds to the world with its own resources.

Irankunda’s goal was only a moment. But behind that moment is the spirit of Australia as both an immigrant nation and a humanitarian country. It embraces people from everywhere, not only to gain those whose talents are already shining, but also to give those still in hardship a chance to shine again.