As Australia becomes more diverse than ever as a result of our liberal immigration policies, we are confronted with several important questions: Is too much ethnic diversity a dangerous thing, or should we welcome into our country with open arms a never-ending flow of peoples from all nations across the planet? How much diversity can Australian society reasonably accommodate before it becomes incoherent and fragmented? When does a cultural melting pot turn into a social pressure cooker?

Dr. Frank Salter, an Australian urban anthropologist and ethologist, has done some interesting research on ethnic diversity.

According to Salter:

"Cross-cultural comparisons reveal the wisdom of Australia's first prime minister Edmund Barton who believed that ethnic homogeneity must be the cornerstone of Australian nation-building. More ethnically homogeneous nations are better able to build public goods, are more democratic, less corrupt, have higher productivity and less inequality, are more trusting and care more for the disadvantaged, develop social and economic capital faster, have lower crime rates, are more resistant to external shocks, and are better global citizens, for example by giving more foreign aid. Moreover, they are less prone to civil war, the greatest source of violent death in the twentieth century."

Salter notes that "multi-ethnic societies are often confronted with the problem of discrimination and group conflict." He also points out that it is often the original majority group who suffer the most as a result of immigration-induced diversity:

"They are pushed out of areas of employment and business; they suffer from the higher rates of crime often shown by immigrant communities; they become the minority is poorer suburbs; and they sense a threat to their continuity as a people belonging to a particular place. They observe that the newcomers have a different group identity, one that excludes them, and that where there were few, now there are many. They sense, sometimes with justification, that they are losing their country."

"When Diversity Meets Ethnic Kinship: Interesting Times?", The Independent Australian, Issue No. 16, Spring 2008

Considering the myriad challenges that extreme diversity creates, how much more diversity should we be expected to accommodate?

Drab, go back fifty years and crunch the numbers on Local crime, especially drug related.

I will guarantee the number of crimes committed by immigrants have sky rocketed.

That should answer your question.

It's a matter of when, not if, we have a terrorists strike on our own soil and I will bet my bottom dollar the attack is not from one within.

My view on the matter is that if we can't do in their country what they can do, or expect to do in ours, then the door should be closed. No if's no but's about it!

If one wishes to move to Australia, then they should act like Australians, follow our laws, and most certainly not try to change our way of life.

The biggest mistake we made was when our governments introduced the ideology of multiculturalism. We can blame both liberal and labor for this.

Have a look at the ethnic problems we have and if that does not convince you, have a look at Europes and Uk social problems.

Noticed the other day that there are now so many Latinas in the USA that both parties have policies specifically for latinas and put them in languages other than English.

How long before the muslim communities here start flexing their political mussles? It will not be long before those groups that practice FGM will start claiming we accept it and it is now part of our culture. Then comes polygamy and other alien cultural practices. Very soon sharia laws are introduced. Our culture is being eroded every day.

Thanks, drab, for introducing me to the works of Dr Salter, who would appear at first glance to be yet another academic pin-up boy of the anti-immigration brigade.

(An interesting side-note: compare the wikipedia entry for Dr Salter at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Salter with his own "brief intellectual history" at http://edna.machighway.com/~franksal/Site/Bio.html It's just a little narcissistic, doncha think, to write your won wikipedia entry as if you were actually famous... but I digress)

To use Salter's broad generalizations as excerpted here to frame the question "how much more diversity" can we support in Australia is somewhat suspect. Perhaps, drab, you can point us to the full article - it is sadly absent from any of the sites I could find - so that we can debate the substance, rather than just the sound-bites you have selected for us.

Would that be possible, do you think?

Our culture is being eroded every day.
Banjo,
Unfortunately it takes someone smarter than the everyday Australian to see that.

Pericles says

"Perhaps, drab, you can point us to the full article - it is sadly absent from any of the sites I could find - so that we can debate the substance, rather than just the sound-bites you have selected for us."

I wouldnt bother if I were you drad, since from this earlier statement of his
" Dr Salter, who would appear at first glance to be yet another academic pin-up boy of the anti-immigration brigade."

It is pretty clear that Pericles has already formed his opinion and any further reading will only to find fault.