Well, at least the author acknowledges that racism is not merely the 'white man's burden', but unfortunately the exclusive use of the term 'refugee' obscures a subtle, but important distinction in the way many Australians regard newcomers to this country.

Whilst asylum seeker advocates may argue otherwise, surveys, such as conducted by Red Cross, show that Australians make a clear distinction between refugees and asylum seekers. Their attitudes to the former are overwhelmingly positive (83 per cent of Australians would be willing to help a refuge settle into their community and another 67 per cent say refugees have made a positive contribution to Australian society); it is towards asylum seekers that negative attitudes are found.

So, why is this?

Asylum seeker advocates often appeal to the touted Australian value of 'a fair go': I suspect that it is just that value that partly explains hostility to asylum seekers. They are seen as having 'jumped the queue', and purchased an illegal means of entering the country, while other, poorer, refugees 'do the right thing', and wait patiently in camps to be processed.

Like it or not, there is a queue to enter Australia: we have a quota, and every asylum seeker is seen as having displaced a rule-abiding refugee, who has possibly waited years for their chance.

Monash University expert Dr. Bob Birrell explains it thus, 'I think the controversy in Australia ... has to do with the undocumented arrivals on our shores who then claim asylum. There are questions there about who are these people, are they an especially privileged group because they have the money to come here. But I think overwhelmingly the key issue is the way they arrive. Instead of us choosing them, they are choosing us.'

"We need to change the way we talk about the challenges of refugees and remind ourselves of where we as a nation have come from and what kind of society we want to be"

perhaps we want to be an isolationist society, there have been calls from the young to put up signs, "Fxxx Off, we're full"

Not a good look admittedly but it reflects the no nonsense instant message and communication society, where people twitter or message instantly, sometimes without thinking, (see any of the "edgy" darlings of the ABC and their twits that are constantly having to be recalled. These are older people who cannot contain their prejudices)

The author seems to want Australia to be a different kind of place to what in reality it is, it doesn't matter where we came from or what happened, what matters is now and what our future looks like. That's just soppy hand wringing, to look backwards all the time .. and many don't think the past is much cop anyway, especially when it is so often used to beat us around the ears when it is convenient to the bashers .. see issues relating to aboriginals.

We won't change the way we talk and in fact it will increase as pressure to become a mixed society with little linkage across cultures continues.

Well may you wish for a different Australia, because this one is on a different path to the liberal progressive ideal.

"Rather than promoting the benefits of cultural diversity, mainstream media representations and political debates concerning immigration in Australia reveal the volatile and divisive path that Australia has ventured down in recent years."
To be honest, it would be hard for the media to promote "The benefits of having Wahabis interacting with a secular Western Society"- it just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?

Of course, YOU Lucas, are not helping either.
By generalizing the hostility as a one-size fits all xenophobia against a generalized 'other' you will ensure that those who specifically fear having fundamentalist ratbags wash up here, will continue to sound like a generalized voter call for general racism- when certainly shutting the doors to religious (including Islamic) fundamentalists in favor of moderate, secular people is a logical course of action?
Especially considering it may mean less people will be caught up in the net, than currently are?

Umm, pardon my ignorance but what exactly is a "racist incident" as defined for the purposes of the Deakin survey? Blithely calling people racist is about as valid as calling people elephants unless we can agree on what each term actually means. In the context of people who feel themselves to be victims of racist attitudes I believe the task is even tougher. What steps were taken to address a natural inclination to over-state one's case when asked a leading question like "How often do you feel yourself subjected to racist attitudes?".

...Here is some lateral thinking for the day. Eliminate Christmas Island from the inventory of Australian territories and re-install the Island to the Indonesian Archipelago where it rightly belongs. The need for that innovation is obvious and urgent.

The author of this article is from a different planet, or perhaps I am being unfair - the author deserves a better cause to fight. Rather than the feeble stuff which get labelled "racial incidents" in Australia, perhaps the author could emigrate to Malaysia or even China. She could spend some time in a Chinese jail for disturbing public order or some such, for this sort of writing. In other words, she would have a regime that would (almost) match her rhetoric.

As for much of the basic thesis, being older (mid-50s) I can recall a time (latish 70s) when men who still wore hats would gratutiously abuse greek or italian immigrants. Although Australia is far from a perfect place to suggest we are going backwards is simply ridiculous. The article should be ignored.

ABS figures for Australian residents have 8% of 0-14 year olds born overseas, 30% of 15-64 yos and 36% of 65+, for an overall average of 26%.

I have not been able to quickly obtain the figure for 18-25 year olds, but from the above trend, they are likely to be less than the 26% average, but let's take it to be 26%.

That leaves 74% born in Australia.

The report claims those who have been in Australia less than 5 years are six times as likely to report racist incidents, and second or third generation four times more. So lets say the average of all those born overseas is 5 times more likely - in between the rates for recent arrivals and those born in Australia with parents or grandparents who were born overseas.

Thus even if ALL overseas-born reported racist incidents, a maximum of one-fifth of "other young people" (presumably referring to the Australian born) did, and the four-fiths who did not report a racist incident account for 74*0.8=59% of the relevant population of 18-25 year olds, leaving 41% who did report a racist incident.

Yet the report claims that "more than 70 per cent of young people experience some form of racism", very much at odds with 41%, even allowing for my assumptions.

Then the author claims "Over 50 per cent of Anglo-Australian young people, for example, experienced some form of racism". I was going to do the maths on that, but decided to do something more useful.

The figures seem to me "Lies, damned lies, and statistics", and as "bitey" wrote "what exactly is a "racist incident" as defined for the purposes of the Deakin survey?". I'm a fourth-generation Australian-born Caucasian who has been called "f'ing nigga" by Aborigines swilling alcohol on a suburban train. I guess that was a "racist incident", eh bitey?

Whilst I can relate to the points made by Curmudgeon, I think that the huge increase in news coverage and portable media devices helps highlight everything that goes on within our society. It seems that everyone has a mobile phone with a camera and every incident is captured, no matter how trivial of our of context it might be. We certainly see a lot more than we ever used to. Is it a good thing that we see every little event? Was a level of ignorance actually bliss? Do we really have a problem with racism or is it simply more exposed than ever before.
I think a balanced outcome of racial tolerance whilst maintaining our National identity would be a wonderful outcome; but the path to that Nervana is more difficult to navigate I fear.

What a pile of twaddle some of you people talk.

My son suffered a racist attack recently in Sydney. He's forth generation & quite light skinned.

He had a bunch of 4 "Leb" thugs stop a car beside him, as he was walking home, in broad daylight, from the train. They jumped out & started laying into him.

We don't know if they meant to rob him, as fortunately a couple of cars stopped, & the thugs shot through before they could do so. Not unfortunately, before they had cracked his skull in 4 places.

Unfortunately there was little blood, as the doctor who saw him gave him a sedative, & 2 days off. He doesn't say much, but after a couple of operations, he still hurts.

As far as I'm concerned we were no where near racist enough in the last 30 years, but don't worry, we will make up for it. We have imported more racism in those last 30 years than ever existed before in our entire history.

Unfortunately it is the ordinary folk who are reaping what the do-gooder elite sowed.

Racism increasing in modern Australia.
The title of this article is misleading. It implies Australians are racist although the author (academic obviously) does mention europeans as being targeted also.
The title should be more to the point by stating an increase in imported racism.

Funny thing how the people who write stuff like this, all live in the "White Ghettos" of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

Sydney's inner west has less non-anglo people than any other part of Sydney. It is Sydney's white ghetto. It's even whiter than the leafy north-shore line that these people despise.

People like the author of this article support immigration, but pay to live in an expensive suburb without migrants. To me, that sounds deeply hypocritical.

If the politically correct crowd actually lived in an 'ethnically diverse' suburb (and with the collapse of social capital that always follows migrant influxes), they'd soon change their tune.

(PS I don't know where this particular author lives, but what I write is true in general)

2011, my dear Mr Walsh, marked the beginning of where the cultural and racial division being imported into Australia by people like your good self, began to reach critical mass, and the much predicted signs of social strain began to manifest themselves.

Multiculturalism is exactly like Socialism, how many times does it need to fail before the Lucas Walsh clones of this world finally figure out that it is not a good idea?

Human being just happen to be tribal and territorial. It is a cultural universal that people prefer to live among those that they consider their kith and kin, and with whom they feel safe with. The validation for this premise can be seen in the largely monocultural ghettoes dividing our suburbs. Human being do not, never have, nor never will, unconditionally accept people from other races and cultures as their brothers and sisters, especially if those people adhere to a culture which the majority consider to be threatening or offensive.

And people who’s culture is diametrically opposed in values, attitudes and behaviours to a majority culture will naturally clan together within a geographical area to reinforce their own belief system, a belief system which others may find objectionable.

And so begins the Balkanisation and social disintergration of a country. The idea that there is strength in diversity is a contradiction in terms. What binds any peaceful community together is a feeling of shared values and a general agreement as to what constitutes acceptable behaviour.

The mass importation of ethnic groups who have exhibited appalling levels of violent criminal behaviour, hostility to the host countries population, and high levels of welfare dependency was never going to promote anti racism. However, a much more discriminating immigration policy may have dampened racism down a bit.

We once had a good policy of taking in victims of wars in Asia, Europe and Africa. It was responsible and orderly. No one objected because no one felt threatened. Why couldnt our leaders have adopted a sterner policy towards the influx from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh? Why wqerent the same conditions applied? Why couldnt they have been returned to holding centres with assurances that their applications would receive just and fair attention when their turn came. If there is a limit to the number we resettle each year then when the African staging centres were emptied then we could have given our attention to those from the countries previously named. I do not support the alternative of sending them back to the country they came from but we should have been fair to everyone. Why were we so gutless and weak kneed and submitted so meekly?
We have sown dragon's teeth and now will have to face the prospect of suffering the consequence.
What consequence?
Listen to the hate ranting of the mad mullahs and imams, one of whom didnt take long before he conspired to begin a bombing campaign in which thousands of innocent Australians would have been massacred. Now tell me I'm lying and making up stories and I shall invite you to examine the proof from the trials in the courts in NSW and Victoria not all that long ago.

socratease

The xenophobia, racism and lack of compassion expressed in most comments to date tend to confirm the author's argument.

The author wrote a pretty good article. It is amazing that some people, who clearly failed to make the cut in academia, exhibit so much jealousy towards academics. I'm not sure what to say about individuals like that.

What a smug self satisfied peanut you must be David Jennings. Could not make the cut. With the huge expansion of the sector in the last 20 years, it only requires 2 Kellogs Cornflakes packet tops to get a job in academia.

Strangely I have heard of people failing to make it as a taxi driver, but not as an academic. I wonder what that means?

Absolutely. It is better to be self satisfied and smug than to be embittered and unfulfilled. Not sure about the cornflakes bit though, qualifications creep has hit academia, and anyway, its more trendy to eat muesli. I could make a joke there about cornflakes and monoculture as opposed to muesli and multiculturalism. But I suspect that the wit might sail past some.

People like Davis are a misfit in a forum such as this. They expect everyone to stand in awe of academics as if to say: When I ope my lips let no dogs bark."

Well, Davis,old smuggy, find another forum.

socratease

If I remember right David got banned for abuse and arguing with the moderator. Surely people like that should not be allowed back on here.

People are different on the inside as well as the outside.

Those that pretend otherwise are denying the truth.

I do tend to agree that there does seem to be an under current of resentment from some quarters whenever the race issue comes up. Some people don't like being criticised, or feeling that their behaviour and attitudes are looked down on by others. That tends to manifest itself in thin-skinned and vitriolic attacks on anybody who dares post an anti-racist message or article on the forums.

btw, who is Davis? Nobody by that name has posted on this thread.

so much jealousy towards academics
David Jennings,
I think you're confusing jealousy with being fed up with incompetent people occupying the pedestals to the detriment of others.

One of the things that sticks out is how often racism is blamed when really the concerns are about cultural or religious clashes.

Islam is not a race. It's not racist to have concerns about the impact Islam could have on our country, the concerns might often be hard to credit but that does not make them racist.

I don't think that there is anything specific about the racial characteristics of the the lebanese to incite particular distress but there are some cultural/social issues which cause concern.

There is an element of racism but much of the real angst is about cultural clash.

R0bert

Unless you actually know somebody personally, how can you say that they are incompetent? And if they are occupying a position to your detriment, doesn't that suggest resentment directed at the position rather than at the individual? Which is why the race issue stirs up such vitriol. Its because some people don't like being told what to think or rather that their views are offensive.

David Jennings you do realize some of the people in this thread who criticized the original author, are actually "academics" themselves?

You are kidding? They are academics? At a university like me or at a "university" of the Dawkins variety?

Either way, the author wrote a good article and his critics are nonsensical.

David Jennings, I'll tell you about racism in Australia.
I am Indian born. I have NEVER experienced any racist jibes or attitudes in the 45 years I have been in this lovely country.
I have spoken to many Africans from different parts of Africa. None ever reported any racist attitudes. Speak to any Malays, Indons,Indians, Islanders, Chinese or Viets and yo will alays get similar responses. I see Chinese girls arm in arm with Assie blokes, and many male Chinese blokes with Aussie girls. Happy as Larry. See if you ever find any Muslim girls with Aussie men or vice versa. Everyone else is happy to be here and share communal happiness and the material benefits the country has to offer. Who do we hear shouting that this country belongs to Allah and everyone must come under sharia law. These people hate democracy and parliamentary rule. Who are the racists?

socratease

Take legal action against the parents Hasbeen as they are the guilty party.

Lucas, it was a Lebanese related year for me during 2010!

Just some of my experiences to share regarding some Australians born here and overseas of Lebanese origins.

A vehicle purchased last year that had most of the original parts stripped of it [yet the r.t.a had passed it along with the REVS check]after the Bankstown and nearby suburban AFP busts into re-birthing.

A robbery in which two Australians of Lebanese origins led the ring. I was ambushed a fortnight before Christmas by three older adults in a country city just on dusk.

A physical though non-sexual assault on one of my family members in public a year ago, randomly attacked, and not caused by my family member. These were two unknown male young offenders of Lebanese origins.

An attempted robbery of my handbag early last year by an Australian of Lebanese origins in a different location. I caught his hand as he made a grab. The guy's profile is known to the Centre.

A high profile business closed down that was highly profitable in our Country City as a result of their offspring caught and charged with a crime committed in a gang.

Extensive, significant ongoing theft running into millions of dollars carried out by Australians of Lebanese origin to fund their drug supplying businesses from interstate. Close neighbours and businesses have suffered over the past three years at the hands of Australians from Lebanese origins' high category interstate theft.

By the way, it should be noted that I work and am friends with people of Lebanese origins.

Sure, these incidents occur frequently to many people in cities by both born and bred Aussies with no Lebanese background, some people with different nationalities, yet in this Country city and state, for over 30 years, my family and self had never experienced problems with any Australians from other overseas backgrounds.

Ironically, none of the above incidents are linked over the past year, as no complaints lodged, although major things tend to come in threes with me!