I'm old enough to have seen waves of "ethnic migrants" and witness the seeming inevitable racist victimization that follows only to see it fade in to the dark corners inhabited by the odd recalcitrant xenophobes who mourn some mythical time when “they” were the dominant phenotype. A place where rampant fear and festering resentment meant they were mainstream rather than some pathetic social troglodytic outcast in their ’own’ (sic) land they now alienated in. Doomed victims, about to be usurped by some horrific foreign culture from the bowels of Hades. A place so unspeakably evil that the boat men of the river Styx refuse to sail.

Whew…., you get the flavour. Human nature is that it seeks those who they feel most comfortable with….people with whom they can identify, those of shared experiences… Surprise! ... People of their culture.
Even those whose ancestry is from that most deplorable of mothers, BRITANIA aren’t as one, Welsh, Scots Irish and the English god knows how many warring cultures there.

Assimilation works for the Borg but few else.
Even the curmudgeonly French vary from region to region.

The idea of one Australia (n) is as bizarre as it is absurd. Because of the world getting (figuratively) smaller, more choices, more knowledge, and more exposure to different cultures we are today unrecognizable to Aussies say of the 50/60/70s et sec.
Even in our originating countries the locals would call us foreigners.

Denying that we have changed and will continue to is like King Canute commanding the tide to not come in.

Me? to hell with where my parents come from. I celebrate St Pats, Halloween (Scots), and any other day that involves fun, Greek philosophy, Chinese wisdom, Drink Czech beer eat Indian Curry, watch Yank TV, drive a Korean car, enjoy Swiss& Belgium chocolate (hmmmm Chocky), love Turkish coffee and Lebanese halva, Hate sport and would love to go to Madagascar, Peru and the Galapagos… I think you get my point.

Concentrate on what we share not our differences and bugger labels save one, Human (well almost).

Name calling just weakens anything you want to say examinator. Why not face the fact people are unhappy with it and talk about othr options..

Spikey mentioned Putnam but didn't elaborate.

Putnam is largely responsible for the notion that volunteering and being active in clubs and community organisations are indices of social cohesion. He found that less and less (white, middle-class Americans) were involved in things like 10 pin bowling leagues these days and concluded that society must be falling apart.

The upshot is that less people of any cultural background are community minded, altruistic, neighbourly networkers. We network internationally on the internet instead.

As others have pointed out, globalising change isn't going away. Cosmopolitans will inevitably be more comfortable and do better in the world than monoculturalists. Maybe it's time to classify groups like TheRealists as just another cultural group among many having trouble adjusting? Maybe we should have programs to help them adjust to the new circumstances they're finding so difficult?

Let us for a second forget polycarps Muslims.
And if we must the 1970,s Asian migrants, yes both like WASPs have some, a few, who are of concern.
After ww2 we took migrants from the old world, they sometimes faced bigotry and sometimes hate.
Today the great grand children of those folk are pillars of our country.
Maybe of pollycarps church too.
I find it strange that we are mostly divided not by race but by religion.
We are you know, divided by the very thing meant to unite us.
Our problem is not multi cultures it is multi religions.
And bigotry on all sides.

Ph00_stains,(pity about the pseudonym)
I think you missed my point.
So much for my attempt at satire.
I was saying deliberately in over the top language (for giggles) to illustrate the silliness of dwelling on the negativity of the situation.

Every wave of immigration is followed by a heightened level of anxiety from the residents. This is manifested by focusing on mythical evils by victimizing/demonizing the new arrivals. Given time one the fearful realize that it’s all in their minds it all fades away. Except in the minds the terminally xenophobic which seem to hold onto these prejudices as a means of self identification (importance) see Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

I’ve lived through waves of “reffo’s”, “spags”, “wogs”, “chinks”, et al including their tall of whom were vilified and victimized only to become part of the whole in time.
I have seen the average diet go from meat and three uninterestingly prepared veg, meat pies with sauce (tomato) to tabouli, pizzas, being able to distinguish between Malaysian and Chinese food.
The latter interesting foods were considered subversive in their initial times.

I was saying isn’t it a pity we can’t skip the nasty puerile bit and go strait to the acceptance.
I also said resistance to change albeit “futile” is lamentably part of current human nature as much as acceptance is…the difference is familiarization and time.

This acceptance is only retarded by attitude “focusing on differences” and rigid labels.

Oddly enough BELLY, the same applies with religions if given a chance. We accept a multiplicity of denominations of Christianity, Buddhism etc yet some still clash with Islam. There is plenty of history that shows that religions can exist together.
Moorish Spain and even the Genghis Khan’s Ulan batu had representatives of most religion and all were tolerated. If Mongols can why can’t we? ….Attitude.

There is nothing in evolution or genetically that says the acceptance process can’t be truncated. I suggested by dispensing with labels bar one ….Human beings we are all that.

It's all very well and good to talk about acceptance and I have to applaud many Australians for their open and friendly nature. I don't think this is supposed to be a debate about tolerance or hate between caucasians and ethnic minorities. The question is are there groups of immigrants that do not accept and tolerate our way of life? And if so, how do they fit into society?

It's all very well and good to say immigration is grand because you like european beer and eat sushi and wear italian shoes and other shallow, insignificant things. Is multiculturalism about foodstuffs and holidays?

Sure, I eat with Chopsticks and celebrate Chinese New Year. That's part of my cultural heritage, but ultimately I identify with being an Australian. The problem is there are people that come to this country that do not.