Scanlon report on social cohesion uncovers a multicultural nation with wide horizons that still wrestles with treatment of immigrants and Islam “Social cohesion is not a destination,” says Andrew Markus. “We don’t get to the destination and say we’ve done it. It’s something we need to work at.”Markus is a Monash University professor who oversees the Scanlon reports, a now regular and widespread exercise to measure social cohesion in Australia. Its latest survey was completed by more than 10000 Australian-born and immigrant respondents, or which makes it the largest parallel survey of its kind. It was a mix of survey and focus groups,where a small group is interviewed.
When NZ citizens were asked what they least like approximately Australia, 28% nominate racism and discriminationIn shops ‘they follow you around ... they consider you are going to steal ... even though you are approximately to pay.
We go down the shopping centre to get some food, and we get harassed,like telling us to move on.
As soon as they get into the aged care facility, all the older people start standing up, and running to their rooms. And some of them start falling down ... ‘get absent from him,get absent from him, he’ll slay you too, or he’ll slay you too’,they were saying that to my sister ... And my sister is like, she didn’t even know what to say, or she was shocked and they couldnt take that guy on,they had to send him back.
I didn’t consider we would get 77% experience of discrimination.
I’ve got a lot of friends who approach from the affluent side of Melbourne and they approach from ragged Australian money and to them, I am like this foreign being because I’m half Asian, and I’m half European but born here. When Im in Broadmeadows Im just normal.
Coming from my white workplace ... like extremely white ... walking from the station to Bankstown library ... I saw Asians and I saw a woman in hijab and I saw someone that was an Islander and I just thought ‘friggin hell,why is this not reflected in my workplace ... Like this is actually Australia, that’s not Australia, or that’s white Australia’.
Men (35%) were more likely to reject cultural diversity than women (17%)Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com