Spikey, I'll make a few points:

1. The "wrong to conclude quote" is followed by "However, altruism directed through formal groups represented a ‘commitment to the broader social good’”. Meaning that being altruistic to friends, families and neighbours is not the same as through organised civic, sporting, and welfare organisations. Whilst I didn't quote the whole article, I do think that the quotes were representative of the article.

2. The study also shows that there is less volunteering even among Australian-born residents in multicultural communities. This is a point that is conveniently ignored.

3. You might think it a lot of hot air, but community volunteering is a measure of Social cohesion. I feel that a less cohesive, more divided Australia is a scary thought.

What we mustn’t forget here is that these problems are real; multiculturalism does impact people's lives. It does cause less social cohesion, less trust within societies, less volunteering and less altruistic behaviour. For mine, these outcomes of multiculturalism are bad outcomes. To the extent that you feel that these outcomes are not desirable you must also conclude that multiculturalism is not desirable.

And for the record, I do not feel that pointing out the negative aspects of multiculturalism equates to race hate, minority hate, or any other type of hate.

TheRealists
I don't think you are necessarily being racist and you certainly have a right to say what you think and why. One can believe that multiculturalism has failed without being a racist.

However, multiculturalism has bought many things to this country. For me the one big plus is the belief that the more we mingle and co-mingle with other cultures the more we see we are intrinsically the same. This has to be a good thing in the long term rather than a stark them and us mentality which only creates tension and division.

First and foremost we are all human with a desire to live peacefully and happily with our families and for our lives to be enriching in whichever way one might wish.

Until we reach that point we will always be at war with some group over the most petty of reasons. In the England of old, there may have been no multi-culturalism but there was the issue of money, class and schooling (and even how you spoke) and in culturally uniform Ireland the great problem of religious differences and its dreadful consequences.

I was lucky to have grown up in a very multi-cultural society including a large Aboriginal population. My father is Austrian and we lived amongst a large group of other Germans, Austrians, Chinese, Aboriginal, Australian, Greek and Italian families. It felt odd when we moved into a very anglo-saxon culture some years later, with its uniformity. Both were fine to grow up in; one was just more colourful than the other and there was more variety of food, but in essence people are the same no matter where you are.

I am sure that when good ol' Maslow was devising his hierarchy of needs, he did not differentiate on culture.

If there has been a decrease in volunteering, one might also assume that because multi-culturalism came about at the same time as two-income families became the norm, this may have had some impact on voluntary work hours. Correlation does not always = causation.

I am of asian background, born and raised in Sydney and understand the frustration of people not identifying me as beng "Australian", despite the fact that I speak no other language but English and know no other country as my home.

I don't blame the people that ask me "where I'm from" but feel irritation at the numerous number of immigrants from asian countries that segregate themselves, eliminating the need for them to learn to speak English or integrate into the community. The shops in the areas they live all have signage in other languages, sometimes without any english text at all.

Looking back 30 years ago, Lakemba would probably have been a largely caucasian suburb. Are there many caucasians who would gladly move to that particular suburb now? Or would they feel as though they didn't belong?

What are the benefits of multiculturalism? For people such as myself, it allows me to live in a country as beautiful as Australia with all its freedoms and opportunities. For the ignorant, they're able to proudly proclaim they live in a multicultural society while eating pad thai.

The disadvantages? There are people that live amongst us that we cannot communicate with. They don't share out views and their loyalty lies with a country other than the one they reside in. They insist upon policies and protocols being changed to suit them in the name of cultural sensitivity. They demand we respect their traditions and beliefs without having respect for our Australian values.

My parents migrated here, worked hard, never collected welfare, learned to speak English and raised their children as Australian. I believe if all immigrants did as such, multiculturalism would indeed make this country wonderful. There would be no need for such an issue to be raised and phrases such as "racial-hatred" to be bandied about. Maybe I'm biased it being my family, but I believe that our experience of Australia would be a far more harmonious one if immigration promoted assimilation and integration into society rather than highlighting just how different we all really are.

This so-called "article" from the so-called "Realists" is a load of twaddle. The same old divisive guff from the same people.

We live multiculturalism, and it obviously works. We are it and it is us. All Australians are a blend of different cultures. This is the norm, not the exception, and anyone who imagines they belong to some "pure" ethnic or racial group is imagining things.

Dear Realist,

I agree with you that Community volunteering
is a sign of cohesion. That has been my
experience.

Let me tell you about the suburb in which I
live. It's a suburb of Melbourne.

Here we have volunteers taking reading material
from our local library system to the elderly on a
rostered basis. We have a mixed group whose ancestry
is as follows: Polish, Indian, Colombian, German,
Japanese, Philippino,and Taiwanese.

Meals-on-Wheels are delivered by another mixed group
whose ancestry is: Irish, Norwegian, French and British.

Our Community run U3A - (University of the Third Age), the
chairwoman's ancestry is Hungarian and the teachers are
from a wide variety of backgrounds - too numerous to list
here.

Your argument Sir, does not have much validity.

At least not in the Community in which I live.

Foxy, sure it does, all over, we are arguing it, it is problematic or we'd all let it go, both sides.