cont'd ...

Australia remains a magnet to people all
over the world who are willing to risk the
wrenching step of changing one homeland
for another in order to better their lives.
Patterns of immigration to Australia have
altered markedly in the past decades, and
this change has had pervasive effects on
the racial and ethnic composition of the
Australian people.

As has always been the case in Australian
history, the prospect of "alien"
immigration is provoking some anxiety among
some of the existing population. A good deal
of local prejudice and sometimes outright
hostility is directed towards asylum seekers
or "boat people." Opinion polls, too, show
wariness on this issue, making it one of
the issues in the upcoming Federal election.

It is ironic that, is such attitudes would
of prevailed in the past, the ancestors of
many of today's Australians would never have
been able to immigrate to Australia in the
first place.