For a decade now, the annual Scanlon Foundation's Social Cohesion survey has taken a close look at Australian society, focusing on immigration and population.
Its latest report, the largest study of its kind, was conducted by researchers from Monash University, which finds that Australia is continuing to live up to its multicultural reputation, taking in demographic changes the report finds consistency in the level of acceptance of immigration and cultural diversity
But the report also finds evidence of increasing concerns amongst a minority of the population. Professor Andrew Markus is the report's author, who says,
"I guess I've been surprised over the course of the surveys that there's been very solid support for the country's immigration program, and for policies of multiculturalism. That's not to say there isn't a sizeable minority, say 35 - 40 per cent of the population, that is not happy with immigration."
Australia's overseas-born population makes 28 per cent of Australia's population - the highest proportion among OECD* countries with populations of one million plus.
Most have chosen to live in capital cities, with high concentrations in Sydney's west, and Melbourne's west and south-east.
In its tenth report, the Scanlon Foundation builds on previous surveys with over 42,000 respondents having taken part since 2007.
Chief Executive Anthea Hancocks says that while Australia has a long and storied history of immigration, it has not always been a smooth road.
"Migration has been a very important part of Australia and Australia's growth and it will continue to be so, but I think in some respects perhaps we took our ability to absorb the different waves of migration for granted, and it wasn't until certain things seemed to be more obviously disruptive that we decided we needed more knowledge, more information to help us look at what we should be doing."
According to the report, Australia maintains a diverse immigration intake. In 2015‐16, Australia admitted 189,770 settlers, with arrival numbers of more than 1,000 from 29 countries.
There are, however, four major source countries: India,China, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
Over the last decade arrivals from India and China markedly increased; between 2005‐06 and 2015‐16, arrivals from India increased from 15,298 to 40,145; from China, 18,084 to 29,008.
This equates to an increase of 162% of Indian arrivals in Australia under the migration program over the last 10 years.
The survey also mentions discrimination experienced by migrants from various countries.
Disaggregated data by country of birth indicates a higher level of differentiation in the experience of discrimination. The Scanlon Foundation’s Australia@2015 survey included more than 5,000 overseas born respondents, including those born in countries not represented in sufficient numbers for analysis in the Foundation’s national surveys.
While reported discrimination for a number of European countries was in the range 11%‐15%, it was at 39% among those born in India, 39% China, 55% South Korea, 67% Kenya, 75% Zimbabwe, and 77% South Sudan.
Between 2010 and 2013 the Scanlon Foundation surveys asked respondents if their feelings were positive, negative or neutral towards specific national groups – and obtained a large measure of consistency in results across the four surveys. Ten nationalities were specified across the surveys, selected to include English‐speaking, European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African and Pacific countries.
Indicating high levels of acceptance, in large measure consistent with response to questions earlier discussed concerning majority rejection of a discriminatory immigration policy, the level of negative sentiment towards immigrants from English speaking and European countries was close to 3%, towards immigrants from the Pacific Islands at 5%.
A small minority but higher 12%‐14% towards specified Asian countries (China, India).
The highest negative sentiment at 16% was towards a specified African country (Ethiopia), and Middle Eastern countries, 22%‐24% towards Iraq and 23%‐27% towards Lebanon.
Fears over national security and terrorism have risen, from close to zero in 2007 to around 10 per cent of those surveyed in 2015 naming it the second-most important issue.
In 2017, around 7 per cent of Australians ranked it third-highest.
Citizens report feeling less positive about their futures, with almost 20 per cent of respondents saying they expect their lives to worsen in coming years.
Garnering less concern was the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers held in offshore detention centres.
Professor Markus says despite the publicity around the closure of the Manus centre and the stand-off with former detainees, public sympathy isn't forthcoming.
"Recently the focus has been on the treatment of detainees in offshore centres or conditions in these offshore centres. Now that doesn't seem to have evoked concern, because we're actually looking for people saying 'I'm concerned about how people are being treated on Manus Island'. And relatively few people are saying that."
Professor Marcus notes that party in-fighting, and events such as the postal survey on same-sex marriage, demonstrate the gulf between politicians and the public.
"The level of concern for the workings of Australian democracy have been there for a number of years now. The major change occurred between 2009 and 2010. This was the period when Prime Minister Rudd had made a number of promises to the Australian electorate and failed to deliver on those promises, or certainly that was the perception, so confidence in government, in Canberra nosedived, went from 48 per cent down to about 30 per cent. That level of trust has not recovered. It's probably at its lowest point and it can't actually get much lower."
