This week saw the release of a Monash University study that tries to map the attitudes of recent migrants to Australia towards this country, its people, its institutions and its culture.

The 2013 survey was completed by respondents who arrived in Australia between 2000 and 2010. Most of them were highly educated and came here through the skills migration program, whereas about 20 per cent were part of the family reunion migration program.

Most of the recent arrivals are satisfied with their life in Australia (81 per cent). However, 41 per cent claim that they experienced some kind of discrimination, when the national average for this is 16 per cent.

Almost seven out of 10 of the recently arrived migrants are in contact with their overseas relatives and friends at least once or several times a week through social media, while anywhere between 32 per cent and 54 per cent follow news reports on the internet or on television from their former home countries.
While there is a majority of people who claim to have multiple identities, (Australian and country of origin, or cosmopolitan), and the sense of belonging to Australia grows stronger, as expected, as time goes by, there is at the same time a high take up of Australian citizenship by recent migrants. Migrants from China, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa top the list, almost nine out of ten of them become Australian citizens.

A significant number of recent migrants follow up on Australian television current affairs programs (76 per cent), however, when it comes to political engagement their level of involvement, as seen worldwide in similar cases, is low.

Limited media attention has been drawn to the report since its release. Some correctly commented on the need for the Federal Government to re-think its attitude towards changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, and others stressed the fact new migrants can now retain a strong connection with their homelands while still engaging with the wider Australian mainstream.

Few, if any, felt the need to discuss the issue of having multiple (cultural in this case), identities in an advanced western country in an era when the world has become a global village.

What do the findings of the report imply, in terms of the social cohesion and the geostrategic priorities of this country? Is it enough for policy makers, various governments in Australia at all levels, and the public discourse, to just celebrate multiculturalism with tokenistic eulogies and with food, wine and dance festivals?

People’s pragmatism, individual and family interests and needs, individual and family aspirations and struggles, coming to Australia out of choice or necessity, the dynamics and the experiences of every day Australian life, all these things will make migrants adopt, sooner or later, Australia, its institutions, most aspects of its dominant culture, and its shared values and aspirations.

Is this enough though? Or is this happening quickly enough? Should Australia let time and the current structures and policies do the job of social integration, potentially risking the creation of a culturally diverse and alienated underclass of citizens in the future. Or alternatively, should the country pursue more aggressively social integration and global competitiveness by making a more conscious and concentrated effort to integrate culturally diverse people in almost every aspect of Australian life? In my opinion, the national interest points towards the second option. Part of this option is also the adoption of an Australian Multicultural Act, as the former Victorian Minister for Multiculturalism and Citizenship argues in another page.

However, how easily do you ‘construct’ an Australian identity in the 21st century, for the entire community, including migrants, in the mega cities of Melbourne or Sydney, for example? When society is so fractured and individualistic? Or when social inequality is on the ascendancy, full time meaningful work is on the way out for a sizable number of people, and the welfare state, including education, is under attack?

People always had multiple identities that relate to class, culture, ethnicity, gender or sexual preference. The question is whether or not we turn this multiplicity of identities and choices into a common advantage…