My thanks, Forrest Gumpp, for my new title - Pericles the Cheated - standing proudly next to Richard the Lionheart, Ethelred the Unready and Vlad the Impaler. I shall wear it with the appropriate modesty.

The direction taken by this thread is certainly puzzling. I beg to differ, by the way, that a thread headed "BECOMING AN AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN... WHAT DOES BEING AN AUSTRALIAN MEAN?" is entitled to encompass quite so broad a church.

Boaz is not being entirely honest, for example, with his dissertation on whom, in a multicultural workforce, he will fire first in times of trouble. He knows as well as I do that the answer is the one that most positively impacts his bottom line, be he aryan demi-god or fuzzy-wuzzy hottentot.

If he had so admitted, his contribution would be entirely valid, under the "that's what being Australian means" rule. He would also be justified to point out that an even simpler approach to the problem is to outsource the whole bloody lot to Wuhan. Can't get much more Australian than that.

Banjo, of course, has stretched the concept of "Variations on a Theme of Australianness" - a work, incidentally, for four trombones and a didgeridoo - with a detour into the evils of female genital mutilation. This, in the middle of a riff on all the evils visited upon us by "Leb gangs", "Pakistani rapists", unidentified (but presumably un-Australian) persons engaged in cockfighting, as well as "extortion, home invasion, sex slavery and worker exploitation".

It makes you realize, doesn't it, how peaceful Australia would be without all these nasty people. We'd just have to make do with our own home-grown serial killers and child rapists, wouldn't we?

But at least they'd be Austrayan, eh?

Banjo - I agree with some of your diagnosis but your cure is the wrong one.

If the law isn't working, then you fix the law, instead of leaving it broken and resorting to cultural profiling.

Pericles,
If you had read the first post you would have seen that:-
Foxy started this thread and ended with the question "So why are we having problems with immigrants?" and asked for our thoughts.

I replied to that question with my opinion that we do not have problems with immigrants but we do with people of some cultures. I then explained my reasons for this opinion and what I consider we should do about it. Turn Right Then Left disagreed with me and stated it should be up to the law to address the problems. I then gave examples of how the law fails to remedy the matters.

All the above is entirely in keeping with the first post by Foxy.

You are right in one respect. We have enough of our own criminals and bad cultural practices, we certainly do not need to import more.

Turn Right Then Left. I only wish you were right and it would be good if the law would satisfactorly address the probems we have with some cultures, but that will not happen. I might add that we have many migrants that have different cultures, but we have no problems with them.

I dont think we a re having trouble with immigrants - or at least what trouble we do have is not a new phenomenon.

You have to expect some tension when people from other cultures come into ours - and you have to be a fool to expect them to make wholesale adjustments to their cultural and belief structures just becasue we want them to do so - and some seem to want them to do it overnight.

The Vietnamese were supposed to be our ruination at one stage; now we harangue the Muslims and lately the Sudanese.

We have by and large invited or at least allowed people to come here - some times out of altruisitc ideals some times with the express purpose of exploiting their skills - either way we have a resposibility to be aware of the differences and structure their transition into our community in such a way as the differences are managed.

We are the senoir parties in the contract - we have the resources and the knowledge base and the responsibilty to make it work - that is not to say there is not a reciprocal responsibility on their part but as the hosst nation we need to take the lead.

And lets face it we are vastly out numbered on this planet - we are not replacing ourselves - our overseas brothers and sisters are - so if we think we can keep all of this to ourselves and strictly on our terms.......we are fools.

I'm very interested in people's point of views.My husband came to Australia as a small child his parents paid x amount as migrants from Sweden,he joined the navy & served until he was given a medical discharge many years later.He grew up here,when joining the navy he swore allegiance to the flag & country,he pays taxes & votes so is he Australian?He has now been informed he has to take out citizenship we have found this to be totally confusing?When is an Australian not as Australian??

You have every right to be confused.

Just go to the dictionary and look up the words stupid and xenophobic - both entries will feautre a picture of the offices of the Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs ( Australia ) and accompanying photographs of the staff therein with Amanda Vanstone and Kevin Andrews wearing the obligatory Brown Shirts.