Individual. If you happened to read my post on page four 'my understanding of asylum seekers' was a tad tongue in cheek.

Steele,
In case you have not noticed, not all Aussies go to pubs, watch footy or play cricket. You seem to have a very superficial view of Australian culture.

As long as your Father-in-law respected our laws and social standards he would be welcomed as a 'New Australian'. Does not matter if he was black, white or brindle, or where he came from.

What we have now, because of MC, is that some groups hold our society in contempt and believe their original cultural practices to be above our laws and social standards.

Be nice if you can offer some suggestions of alien cultural practices that would enrich us in the quest for greater diversity. Hey, I understand Iraq is about to pass laws for marriage at nine yo, allow rape in marriage, and for a wife to get permission from her husband to leave the house. Would you agree with that?

Jodelie,
I take it then that you would not accept the conduct of this mob in the quest for diversity or for cultural sensitivity.

http://pickeringpost.com/story/did-islamic-youths-rape-another-young-mother-/3080 Sorry there does not appear to have a date.

Multiculturalism in action. Am sure the lady felt enriched by her cultural experience.

Oh Banjo. Gentleman and scholar. You would be correct in your assumption that I would view this as inhumane and criminal, despite what they choose to call it. These mongrels, tough in numbers, being allowed to carry on their tradition (thats their culture) is blood curdling and mind blowing. What these people have been taught for generations, is that their God,Allah whatever given right (was there a harm no man, peace and love for all?) is now, PEOPLE, criminal and barbaric. This behavior will continue, cause sure as hell no one here is going to succeed in changing extremists religious beliefs.
And if our justice system is lenient due to the criminals 'extremist religious beliefs' our justice system is pathetic, who they are sucking up to stuffed if I know.

Dear jolelie,

It sounds like you would have had an interesting upbringing.

My father-in-law is probably not as enthusiastic in completely disassociating himself from ideas about racial purity as your father (not that he was ever overt in this) and he has been know to regale us all with some of Hitler's policies that he considered worthy. But he does have a real love for this country and the freedoms we enjoy.

The history of the German migrations before and after the war is really fascinating. In some areas in Brazil there are towns when over 90% of the population are white Germanic peoples. It is interesting to note that of people speaking the German language outside of Germany the US has over 5,000,000 but Brazil is second with 3,000,000. Here in Australia we have just over 110,000. What was the attraction do you think to Brazil of all places?

Not only was their language preserved but also their culture and architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerode

Pomerode is what others on here would call an 'ethnic enclave'. What contributed to sustaining these populations was the extraordinary birth rate of German immigrants.

“Research has found that between 1826 and 1828 a first-generation German Brazilian woman had an average of 8.5 children, and the second generation had an average of 10.4 children per woman. Birth rates among German Brazilian women were higher than those of other Brazilian women, resulting in faster growth of the population of German origin than of the population of non-German origin and a rapid increase in the population of German origin in the country.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Brazilian

Of course mentioning immigration birth rates on threads like this will have certain posters, gnashing teeth and rending garments but back then it seem the Brazilians largely took it in their stride.

Dear SPQR and Banjo,

The reason I mentioned Germany's actions during the war is to counter this crap from Banjo; “I understand Iraq is about to pass laws for marriage at nine yo, allow rape in marriage, and for a wife to get permission from her husband to leave the house.”

So you would have us block migrants from Iraq because some far right religious political group is trying to push through some arcane law just to boost their chances in the upcoming election? Yet we actively sought migrants from post war Germany even though their popular leadership was guilty of the most hideous crimes against humanity of the last century. It has been estimated that fully a third of Germany adult males engaged in some sort of violence against Jewish people during those years. Until recently the US was one of only 5 countries in the world that executed child offenders. Why didn't that disqualify their citizens from migrating to Australia? Finally Australia is now a country that has been named by the UN in reference to human rights abuse. Should that preclude my children from emigrating if they wished?

It is an inane argument with tenuous validity. Time to start playing another tune.