Bazz,

This isn't about where I want to live is it?
And don't tell me to "go back to where I came
from." I was born in Australia. People who've come
into this country over the decades have made this
country what it is. And if some choose to return
be they Arab or British, to their original birth
places - for whatever reasons, that's their choice.

What's your point?

Sorry, I did not make it clear.
People in Lakemba have had to move to another part of Sydney because
they did not want to live in Arabia.

My wife used to live there and people she knows have gone elsewhere.
In some streets in Lakemba, you would now not be able to drive home on
Fridays as the street is occupied by people praying in the middle of the road.

Bazz,

I grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney -
actually - just outside of Parramatta.
And admittedly I haven't been back for quite
a few years. I remember all the myths that were
spread about our Maltese neighbours - which I
found out to be false, once I became friends with
Maltese girls at high school.

I'm not trying to imply that what you're saying
is not true about Lakemba - and of course if a
neighbourhood becomes unbearable, the best thing
to do is move for the sake of one's sanity. Be it
because people pray in the streets, or vomit all
over your car after a late night out or hoon up
and down your road, or threaten to call the cops
when your little brother hits a cricket ball into
their front yard and then tries to collect it.
(The Brit owner of the house scared the heck out
of my little brother by chasing him off swinging an axe).

I guess it takes all kinds - though I'm not sure why.
I guess we can only speak from our own set of values
and experiences.

Pericles said: "In doing so, you made your position - an "opponent of immigration" - crystal clear."

Questioning how much diversity Australian society can realistically expect to accommodate is not the same as being an "opponent of immigration." No where did I call for the effective and immediate end to all immigration to Australia.

"So there is no point backpeddalling, pretending that you had merely opened a debate in a spirit of purest enquiry. It simply does not wash."

Ah, so anybody who raises critical questions about diversity must be pushing a certain agenda and is not credible? In other words, critical questions about diversity are beyond the realms of discourse. How convenient.

I'm sorry that critical enquiry about the downsides of diversity doesn't "wash" with you. Then again, you are hardly a paragon of objectivity on this subject, now are you? You've made it abundantly clear on these forums that you support both high immigration and multiculturalism. Furthermore, as we have seen, you also harbor an animus against long-standing Australians which evidently affects your judgment on immigration and multicultural matters.

"I did read up on the man, by the way. My "pin-up-boy" comment was deliberate. He is being used, not only by you, but by a variety of organs slightly more open in their hostility towards immigrants."

Those "organs" - or at least the one you linked to - also seem to be heavily inspired by Darwinian concepts. Perhaps we should throw Darwin in there as another "pin-up-boy" of the anti-immigrant far-right. And basically anybody else who has worked in the fields of genetics, behavioural biology, Darwinian anthropology etc...

"In the long run, territory is crucial for survival, and human history is largely a record of groups expanding and contracting, conquering or being conquered, migrating or being displaced by migrants. The loss of territory, whether by military defeat or displacement by migrants, brings ethnic diminishment or destruction–precisely what is happening in the “multicultural” West today."

And?

Unpleasant it may be, but it's actually a fairly accurate summation of human history. Or do you disagree?

"But they stopped, didn't they. Meanwhile, out in the Pilbara..."

Really? When was that?

In any case, get back to us when you decide to explain your own bigotry against long-standing Australians.

Lexi wrote: "From your posts it seems that your notions of nationhood are incompatible with diversity."

Do yourself a favour and research the classical definition of a nation. You shall find that nations in the historic sense are based on shared ancestry, culture, language and identity, not diversity.

Anthony D. Smith, Professor Emeritus of Nationalism and Ethnicity at the London School of Economics, puts it this way:

"Nations are linked by the chains of memory, myth and symbol to that widespread and enduring type of community, the ethnie, and this is what gives them their unique character and their profound hold over the feelings and imaginations of so many people."

Lexi: "People who've come into this country over the decades have made this country what it is."

A less cohesive, less unified country than it was before they came?