How do Australians feel about Immigrants ???

I am just curious...

I am a 25 year old white male from cape town, south africa, and i'll be leaving for Australia, Melbourne within the next 6 months...

My question is how do you guys feel about this ? Will i be treated as a complete outsider, will i find it difficult to find a job ? even though my profession is on your skills shortage list...


And how do you feel personally about this ?

You don't have to ask my reason for coming over, that is rather obvious, living in south africa compared to australia is like comparing heaven and hell, though many would say i am wrong,,,i say they are naive..

but thats not the point...

Do Australians despise immigrants, even if they are just normal hard workign blokes looking for a better life ?

I'm looking forward to living in Australia, it's a wonderful country!!

Well if you come here and respect our culture, speak our language (you obviously do) and endeavour to contribute to society....then welcome

The thing that really annoys me about some.....not all immigrants is they do not respect our culture. For example, some muslims raping Australian girls, simply for the fact, that they are not wearing muslim womens clothes.

I am sure you aren't like that so welcome to Australia

I am going to sound very racist, but so be it...I am going there to get away from what you just mentioned, in South Africa 500,000 woman a year get raped...I dont want to live with these people...

But these days I have been hearing of large numbers of muslims and non whites going into australia illegaly and legally, which saddens me...

Coming to Australia legally you won't have any superficial problems, please just remember to leave any South African prejudice at the door. Although it is tempting to say my experiences with Afrikaans around Bondi has been quite negative, I have to be honest and say I have negative experiences with most humans.

reply to post by Shar_Chi



None at all, i'd be happy as a chappy living there

Then... G'day mate

i lived with about 14 south africans i was the only non south african in a large share house in the uk, some from towns like cape town, port eliz, durban.....i found we had alot in common and got on really well....you'll be ok here in Aus i think.....although those from farms..... that spoke Afrikaans where not as laid back as those from the costal regions but their love of rugby and cricket was something we connected on, Good luck with your travels, i hope you enjoy it here.

In my experience most immigrants don't respect our culture or values and need to take a long hard look at themselves! I mean - just look at what those migrants who came in the First Fleet have done in the last 200+ years! Appalling!



In all seriousness, though, there is racism everywhere, some subtle, some not so subtle. If you want a snap shot of Australian mentality have a look at this thread regarding yesterday's apology to the Stolen Generations. Some good, some bad - like anywhere, I guess.

It also depends on where you live. A lot of white South Africans settle in Perth. I live in Melbourne which is very multi-racial but I wouldn't say it's multi-cultural. Sport unites people from all backgrounds, races and cultures here in more ways than you can imagine but you actually have to experience it to understand it. Just go to an Australian Rules Football game at the MCG and you'll see people from all backgrounds mixing together and going for the same team. Oh, and the fans aren't separated, either - unlike soccer.

A lot of South African "Coloureds" (I hate that term... but it's in accepted use) seem to settle in Melbourne and Sydney - unless it's just that I keep running in to them. Melbourne is also the second largest Greek city in the world and I've met so many people from Mauritius here that I reckon it's the unofficial capital!

BTW, I'm of mixed heritage and if I was born in South Africa I'd be regarded as a Coloured even though I look like any one of my Wog (Italian or Greek) mates that I grew up with in a town called Frankston. My dad is Aboriginal with Maori and White mixed in and my mum is a British (mostly Welsh) migrant who came out on a boat in the early 60's with the rest of her family.

But Australia is what you make of it.

I understand what u mean about the culture of Australia, and that immigrants should embrace and accept it if they decide to live there...

I for one and more than willing to do that, as the way I see it, I don't have any kind of culture here in s.a, i mean I am not a "boer" "farmer" "afrikaner" i dont have that mentality...

I live in a land i don't belong in, and where im not wanted, and i'd be more than happy to embrace the aussie culture...

By the way...I hear you guys have the best beer in the world, not to mention your world famous meat pies...

reply to post by OzWeatherman


What is "Australian culture"? If you're going to tell a fellow to respect it, it's only fair to alert him to what, exactly, you're referring to.

being an American, all I know about Australian culture is that you drink lots of beer, have colon blockages from all the beef, ride around on kangaroos, and have a severe post apocalyptic biker punk problem.

reply to post by TheWalkingFox



Well i'm all down for meat pies and beer... ( on occasion hehe )
got a body to maintain...i dont like colon blockages neither..

But i'd like to know more about aussie culture from someone who has lived there all their lives so i can understand it a bit better before i get there

reply to post by OzWeatherman


Because white Australian born men don't rape Australian women. What a pathetic, racist comment. You should be ashamed.

watchZEITGEISTnow

reply to post by TheWalkingFox


Bingo. I'm an Australian, and I have no idea what this talk of Australian 'culture' exactly is. Aboriginal ceremonies? Not really. Drinking lots of beer? Yeah... Pretty much

That's not to say we don't have our own culture, it's just harder to pin down. It's easy to stereotype Aussies. Paul Hogan with Crocodile Dundee didn't do it any good.

Australian culture is more like a hybrid mix between European and American traditions. There's some unique stuff, but it's only things you can pick up on after you've lived here for a while.

As for racism... You might bump into it. Most Australians are an accepting bunch. But there's also a seething undertone that runs among a percentage. This would be more evident if you're of Middle Eastern decent, but that's pretty much the case in many places around the world right now.

Remember the riots in Australia in 2005, at Cronulla beach? This is the guy that inflamed it, one our little fascist radio shock jocks:

www.youtube.com...

Alan Jones. Believe it or not, our former Prime Minister, John Howard, described him as an admirable broadcaster after the above comments were made.

You will be very welcome in Australia! We are a very multicultural society.

Ok, i really don't want this thread to turn into a racist kind of thing...

The question is just about how they feel about immigrants, not illegal immigrants and all that, but decent hard working guys...

Obviously muslim and black immigrants are going to have a hard time in australia, it is beyond me why they even want to go to australia seeing as the country is 93% white and 7% asian...

I live in Melbourne. It really depends on what situation you're talking about when it comes to racism. I was talking to a cab driver and he said that Indian drivers get abused a lot, and in general cab drivers get hit/abused from time to time even if they're white Australians. But that same Indian, would not experience any real racism in their day to day lives. Ive got Indian friends, they are fairly common much like other Asians, and they assimilate fairly easily within society. No big deal for most.

There were race tensions up in Sydney a year or so back with muslims and Australians - but if you ask me, thats more the youth mentality at play. That was the result of 20 years of simmering tensions between groups on a beach that escalated into something bad. Overall, Melbournes fine in that regard, as is most of Australia I would imagine - but yeah ofcourse you'll get a few bad seeds everywhere you go.

Originally posted by sethdarke
Obviously muslim and black immigrants are going to have a hard time in australia

Yes it's true, we do have more than our fair share of rednecks.

Can i ask one question....

Does Melbourne / Sydney / Perth accommodate to muslims ? I mean like building them mosks or whatever u call it all over the place ?

here in cape town they are all over...rather irritating the way they have to shout their prayers out over a microphone if u ask me....but thats just me...

How do Aussies feel about immigrants?

Difficult question to answer. Depends on exactly which group of migrants you belong to.

If you belong to the original group, then you probably dislike all immigrants. Let's face it, they arrived 40 millennia late and stole the whole country.

If you belong to the next group then either you welcome them (because you know you're a boat-person, too), or, like the fools, buffoons, idiots and wankers who turned up at Manly, you hate "boat-people" because they stole your country from you. This second group has neither heard nor understands the meaning of the word "irony".

If you belong to any group that arrived in the wake of WW2 then you hate every group that arrived after you.

However, if, like roughly half the country, you have a brain and you can recognise truth without the aid of an easel, a pointer, shiny colours and single-syllable words, then you recognise that Australia is a nation made up almost exclusively (and some would say entirely exclusively) of immigrants.

Speaking for my own opinion: Like all small, relatively inconsequential nations and their peoples, Australians don't actively dislike migrants (at least the white ones), but they do enjoy taking the piss out of their accents...

Expect someone to quote Lethal Weapon 2 at you: "But, but, you're bleck!"

Speaking for myself: The next migrant has as much moral right to be in Australia as I do (unless he's a Nazi, war-criminal etc), but soon we're going to have to face the reality that there is no more water and we can't take any more "new Australians".

I hear the Kiwis still get rain semi-regularly...