Australia is slowly but surely waking up to the reality of “Asianization”. Some 84% of the population now accept that “multiculturalism is a good thing and benefitted Australia”. (Source: Scanlon Foundation Survey 2013).

The fear and resistance seen in the 1960s and 1970s with resurrections attempted by failed political parties of the recent past, seem to have all but faded as futile popularity exercises with only an occasional whimper emerging now and again in the form of the ‘big Australia’ question.

Dr Tim Soutphommasane, Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner writes that, “Debates about Asian immigration reflect a contest over Australian national identity. For some, immigration has meant a repudiation of Australia’s British cultural heritage — a rejection of all that was, in their eyes, traditionally Australian. For such people, Asia — to be more precise, immigration from Asia in significant numbers — was a source of cultural corruption or degradation.

“And yet, for all of its pungency, the rhetoric about multiculturalism’s imminent failure hasn’t been proven correct. Australian multiculturalism has endured. In last year’s Scanlon Foundation survey on social cohesion, 84 percent of respondents agreed that multiculturalism is a good thing and benefited Australia.”

According to the Commissioner, nearly 50 percent of our population were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. It is estimated that close to 10 percent of the Australian population have Asian cultural origins or ancestry. Of the top 10 overseas birthplaces of Australians, five are countries in Asia: China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. China and India now represent the two largest source countries for immigrants to Australia.

Of the 4 million people who speak a language other than English at home, close to 1.3 million speak an Asian language — including more than 650,000 who speak Chinese.

There has been an increasing orientation of economic activity towards Asia. China and Japan are our two largest two-way trading partners; this week saw the finalization of a free-trade partnership between Australia and Japan.

Looking at the region more broadly, it is striking that of Australia’s top 10 two-way trading partners, seven are part of the Asia-Pacific region. Only one of the top five isn’t an Asian nation (that being the United States).

“Beyond the numbers, there has also been a shift in mind-set. Australians understand that we can’t divorce our society from the fate of Asia,” writes the Commissioner.

Further reading: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/the-asianization-australia-part-1-3.html