Ideas@TheCentre
A multicultural success story
The violent protest two weeks ago in Sydney’s CBD by Muslim activists prompted much strident rhetoric about the health of Australia’s multicultural society.
Gerard Henderson, executive director of The Sydney Institute, summed up the mood when he claimed the riot provided ‘yet more evidence that multiculturalism – after a promising start – has failed.’
Before we accept invitations to be multiculturalism’s pall-bearers, it is worth remembering that our culturally diverse society remains open and healthy.
New Australians from the migration program quickly become productive members of the broader community, while the vast majority of Australians are happy with cultural diversity.
Shortly after arrival, only 4.8% of skilled migrants, who make up almost 70% of the overall migration program, were unemployed.
Although those in the family migration stream had poorer employment outcomes, their unemployment rate of 8.1% is not too far ahead of the national rate of 5.1%.
Given that employment is an engine for both prosperity and engagement with the wider community, these are important results.
The attitudes of Australians towards cultural diversity tell a similarly encouraging story.
In a recent survey of more than 12,000 Australians led by a team of academics from five Australian universities, 86.8% of respondents agreed it is a good thing for a society to be made up of people from different cultures.
More than half of the respondents also said they mix with members of different cultural groups often or very often in the workplace, while just under half do the same socially.
Analysis of the 2006 Census confirms healthy levels of interaction between different cultures: The spouses were of different ancestries in 30% of all couples, while the rate of intermarriage has been increasing with each successive generation regardless of ethnic background.
As well as having diverse families, Australia has comparably low levels of residential segregation. Australians are more likely to live in mixed neighbourhoods than their British, Canadian, and in particular, US counterparts.
With an open society in which the vast majority of new arrivals quickly become productive members of the broader community, Australia remains a multicultural success story.
Benjamin Herscovitch is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies and a panellist at the CIS event ‘After the Riot: The Meaning for Multicultural Australia,’ held on Thursday, 27 September 2012. The video of the event will be available soon on the CIS website.
