"From this time forward, under God
I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people
whose democratic beliefs I share,
whose rights and liberties I respect, and
whose laws I will uphold and obey."
- Australian Citizenship Pledge
A person may choose whether or not to use the words 'under God.'

With these words, new citizens become part of the Australian community.
They become part of the Australian experience. They promise loyalty, respect and obedience to the law. They share freedoms, responsibilites, and privileges.

So why are we having problems with immigrants? Your thoughts please...

"So why are we having problems with immigrants?"

Foxy are you really sure that we are "having problems with immigrants".

My impression is that throughout our history we have been talking about problems with immigrants and that those percieved problems tend to dissappear as a wave of migrants settle in and we have a new wave of immigrants to worry about. Years ago it was the southern europeans (wogs), then vietnamise, then asians in general and now muslims (possibly a shift underway to african's).

My impression is that most of what problems exist are not with the adults who have chosen to move to Australia but rather with the second generation in their teens who did not choose to move here and are trying to find a place. Most will later settle down and raise kids who fit in well and love the country. I suspect that for the most part it is much ado about very little.

R0bert

I can't be sure, because it was so long ago, but I thought that my citizenship ceremony involved my swearing allegiance to the Queen.

I recall thinking at the time wow, that's the first time anybody has asked me to take that oath, and I had to come all the way to Australia to do it.

Interesting afterthought, though.

If I were now to vote for a republic, wouldn't that be contrary to my oath of allegiance?

If it isn't, what force does such a commitment have?

And by association, what is the force of the current loyalty pledge? If they are not designed to be taken seriously, then aren't they just a bunch of words?

As I see it, we spend far too much time waving nationalist flags of convenience, and far too little time trying to get on with each other.

"why are we having problems with immigrants?"

Because they're people. You might as well ask, why are we having problems with politicians...or company directors...or single mothers...or evangelists...or OLO posters?

And personally I've never had problems with immigrants in my life - my Dad was one, my wife is one, at least a third of my closest friends and work colleagues through the years have been, and indeed probably close to 75% of my neighbours are.

I brought up this topic because of some the posts that we've been having on other threads to get a better consensus of opinion from this forum's contributors. People were expressing concern about the Cronulla riots, someone suggested a Jihad is about to descend on us.
Then there's the thread dealing with 'Multiculturalism - ongoing madness.' Another one calling for limiting the number of migrants into this country, and the kind of migrants to accept.

Yet you all seem to think its all a "storm in a teacup," as RObert sees it. You don't see any racist elements in our society. No scapegoating. No separatism, or any anti-Muslim agitation.

That's interesting. Because I had quite the opposite impression from reading the posts on these other threads. I would be delighted if you were correct and I was wrong. That would be wonderful. I could stop worrying about our country's future.

Foxy, I don't think most people have problems with immigration, but there's a vocal and aggressive minority of people who do for various reasons, and they seem to be over-represented at OLO.

I was born here, so the citizenship oath is something I'm not required to enact - although I don't have any problems with it if the "Under God" bit is optional or absent. On the subject of immigration, my only concerns are the environmental impact of 'mass' migration, although I don't agree that term applies to the current rate.

As I've said before, I think immigration to Australia should be restricted on environmental and humanitarian grounds to bona fide refugees. And I have no problems with such refugee immigrants being required to make a formal commitment to Australia. The oath that Foxy quoted would be fine if the God bit was removed.