Editor's Blog

Some 85% of those surveyed by the Scanlon Foundation say they believe that multiculturalism has been good for Australia, according to a recent report on the SBS.

Data referred to in the Scanlon Foundation's Multiculturalism Discussion Paper shows Australians are generally very accepting of cultural diversity and immigration, but the level of support varies across generations, geographical locations and demographic groups.

Research Professor at Monash University Andrew Markus says this report looks in detail at research that's been going on over the past 30 years.

"There's very high levels of support. 85 per cent of people think that multiculturalism is good for this country and those sort of high figures, people have been obtaining for 20 or more years but what is particularly interesting in the findings that we're releasing now is that we look more closely at that proportion who say that it's been good for Australia - we disaggregate those figures - we try to make sense of those figures in more detail.

"There does seem to be a pattern of greater support for immigration. When it comes to some other issues, such as different ethnic groups, at the level of the data that we have it's more length of time in Australia and people are more positive towards people who've been here for 20 or 30 years and similarly amongst the immigrants themselves, there's more differentiation among the recent arrivals in terms of the support that they're looking for from government."

The report notes that recent migrants are however finding settling in challenging pointing out that they are finding it hard to get jobs in the areas they've been trained. It says that this is an important issue for government in terms of current immigration intake and capacity for people to find the sort of employment, to look into.

Welcome to Australia Founder Brad Chilcott says despite 85 per cent of Australians supporting the concept of multiculturalism, the nation continues to see divisive politics.

"Prejudice never survives a personal interaction, I think, and the more we can do to foster - not just tolerance that other people might have a different culture than us - but actually foster inter-cultural relationships and facilitate a real discussion between people of different backgrounds the more we are going to change people's perceptions and prejudices."