DavidJS said:

"Australia's first Prime Minister was Edmund Barton - not John Barton."

LOL yes I think the Melbournian authors of this article perhaps confused Edmund Barton with 'John Batman', the gentlemen who founded Melbourne by scamming the local aborigines (the Wurundjeri people) using the old 'you give us your land and we'll give you interesting shiny objects' trick.

Multiculturalism is a one-way street. It means "we respect you" but "you don't have to respect us". Multiculturalism is hypocrisy taken to new levels. This is true of many groups and cultures, but it is especially true of Islam.

First of all let me make clear that the massive immigration of Muslims to the West is a new phenomena that has only occurred in the last generation. Before that it was Europeans, Asians or even Africans (against their will). Prior to the 1960s when immigrants came from Muslim countries, it was mostly Christians escaping the evils and discrimination they suffered under Islam and Sharia.

Understand also that the rules have changed - 100 years ago a family would move and they had to integrate. Now with multiculturalism, welfare and technology, this is different. A group can live, work, worship and even hate, and live side by side with another group. When people praise past immigration (as in the US or Australia) they are talking about a world that no longer exists. It is like the generals planning for the last war. Things have changed, but the politicians and intellectuals don't know it.

Welfare now makes immigrants independent of work and responsibility. Multiculturalism discourages integration and political correctness makes them and their culture immune from criticism. Modern technology means they can live in the West like they never left home (and even eat their favorite Pakistani dishes or watch their favorite Imam in Old Arabia on TV telling them to hate the infidels).

It is a whole new world. The effects of globalism, new communication technology and mass migrations are so many and so deep that they are beyond any individual's understanding. This is a dangerous mixture one day and it will explode. Watch what is going to happen in Europe - it will not be pretty. Boom.

Kactuz

Multiculturalism should mean an ability to communicate with one another - unfortunately it is all too often taken to mean that isolating people is acceptable.
It also means that some groups get assistance and not others. If you are Greek or Italian, Hungarian or Vietnamese you will get assistance to run a cultural event. When those of Scots descent ask for the same assistance they are told "No, you don't qualify". If you want to run an "Australian" event again, no you don't qualify.
A member of my immediate family married into the Greek Cypriot community and they have proved friendly and supportive but they will still speak Greek to one another when people who speak no Greek are present (despite the fact that they can just as easily use English now that the grandparents are no longer alive). We all tried to learn some Greek to be polite to the grandparents but the gesture is simply not reciprocrated and, unfortunately, learning modern Greek is just one of the many languages we would need to learn to use whereas they need English to live in Australia - or should need. There are people who do not see any need to learn English. They can shop in places where they are not required to use English and rely on relatives or friends for a visit to the doctor etc.
Yes, unfortunately multiculturalism is a dirty word when these sort of things occur. Sad when you consider how much it could have to offer.

"Multiculture" is the latest failed experiment by the left that together with their dreadfully failed experiments with the Aboriginal situation, has set our country back at least three decades.
How could people be so fooled by such stupidity for so long?These so called academics have all of history at their fingertips but have totally missed the gist of it.
Our so called 'obscure Australian values ' were what made this wonderful country so good in such a short period of time. From convict beginnings to a leading nation, it is our intrinsic values that have proved their worth.
Anyone who cannot see those values proven every day of their lives should not be taking up space in this beautiful land.

Thank you Katcuz (sorry if I can't recall the spelling of your name properly). You have added two new thoughts.
(1) That welfare provisions can retard integration into a new culture. When I came to Oz 50 odd years ago there was economic pressure on me to get into the swing of things pretty quick smart. Perhaps some of that impetus is lost these days. I am not sure of the fix because it would be inhumane to deny welfare.
(2) Advances in communication mean that people can indeed cling to their old societies of support, and this can retard integration.

I sometimes wonder whether receiving individual immigrants rather than complete families is something that so continues to link an immigrant with their society of origin that it impedes integration.

It is implicit in all this that I am very much pro integration. I mean by this that the newcomer assimilates to some extent with the host culture, and that to some extent the host culture accommodates to the new ideas of the newcomer.

davo, i have a couple of questions for you:

1. "refugee industry"....? how is working with and helping refugees being involved in an industry? the vast majority of lawyers, social workers etc who work with refugees do so as volunteers.

2. how exacly has immigration increased the cost of living in Australia? For such a long time, the Australia economy has ridden off the back of work performed and businesses created by migrants.