Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Is it just stats?
So, as you can see from the table, Asian-born Australians are overwhelmingly likely, if not at least to want an increase, to want the level of Asian immigrants to remain the same.
But that's not the point - the point is that everyone else wants less Asians to come into the country. I've chosen my friends well enough over the past few years that I was almost convinced that Australians are not racist!
Australian-born people are also less likely to mind immigrants who are Southern European, and then still less likely to mind British born immigrants.
Overall, there is opposition to taking in more immigrants, but this much is clear: opposition to taking in Asian immigrants is more than double that of British or Southern European.
But those from the Middle East have it worse - Whilst 36.7% of Australians think we should accept less Asians, (compared to 14.3% and 16.3% who think we should accept less British and Southern European, respectively), a majority of Australians think we should be accepting less Middle Eastern immigrants: 54.3% !!
And who says Australians believe in the 'fair go'?
Reference:
Betts, K. (2005) ‘Migrants' attitudes to immigration in Australia: 1990 to 2004’ in People and Place, vol. 13, no. 3, pp.21-32
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