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London bombings a backdrop to immigration review in Australia
Published on: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 08:16:06 GMT
SYDNEY - Australia is taking a fresh look at its immigration policies at a time when the London terrorist bombings have focused public attention on the attitudes of Arabic-speaking communities in some Sydney and Melbourne suburbs, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
The review comes amid fears that "social cohesion" is being challenged by high concentrations of new arrivals in big cities and a perceived failure of policies to channel more migrants to rural areas.
But officials in Canberra note the review was ordered months ago and did not signal a questioning of a non-discriminatory immigration policy that was fashioned to give everyone abroad the same chance of finding a new life in Australia. The fresh look will focus on the "geographic dispersal of migrants" and the strains on social cohesion attendant on multiculturalism.
"Associated with the increased diversity are the costs associated with racist attitudes, a lack of racial and religious tolerance and a perceived loss of Australian culture," the tender document for the study said, according to The Australian newspaper. "The tendency of migrants from similar origins to move to particular areas may mean that these social costs are concentrated in these areas."
More than 6 million people from 150 countries have settled since World War II. One in four of the 20 million Australians was born somewhere else.
Australia has not experienced racial unrest despite the fact that minorities are under-represented in politics, in big business, in sports and on television. But there have been bouts of xenophobia, the last being at the end of the 1990s when firebrand politician Pauline Hanson picked up mass public support for a platform that called for a cut in immigration.
In her first speech in parliament after being elected in the 1996 general election, Hanson warned that the country was "in danger of being swamped by Asians" who had "their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate".
In recent months there have been calls for Australia's 300,000-strong Moslem community to help weed out extremists in their midst. New South Wales premier Bob Carr said last week that moderate Moslems ought to be more vocal in their condemnation of terrorist acts carried out in the name of Islam.
This week, in a Sydney suburb that houses Australia's largest mosque and has a big Arabic-speaking community, a bookshop that stocked books extolling the deeds of suicide bombers was warned by police that it risked prosecution.
This year around 110,000 will arrive under the migration programme. Another 12,000 will come as United Nations'-sanctioned refugees from conflicts around the world.
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