Living In The Heartland

Currently Listening To :: Black Thought Freestyle :: Black Thought and DJ Tony Touch

Here is some excerpts from a SMH article that I found really interesting from a mail that someone sent me...thanks Anthony! Commentary will follow shortly; gotta get to class!

SMH 18/3/2002 "Cultural rift widens as Sydney's migrant magnet works overtime" By Michael Millett

Sydney is soaking up a rising share of the nation's migrants, particularly from Asia and the Middle East, skewing the city's demographics and creating what a leading sociologist calls a "two Australias" cultural divide.

A Monash University sociologist, Dr Bob Birrell, has analysed the Immigration Department figures in a controversial paper to be published today. He warns that the ettlement patterns are worsening Australia's "cultural schism". While rural and urban Australia had long been at odds over economic issues, immigration had created a "more profound fissure".

"The divide between [Sydney and Melbourne] and the rest of Australia... has widened. Sydney and Melbourne now constitute the multicultural heartland. The rest of Australia, with the partial exception of Perth, is distinctive for the relative absence of ethnic diversity."

At the same time, there is a corresponding drift of native-born Australians out of Sydney, as they age and cash in on the booming price of their houses. The city's Australian-born population hardly increased between 1986 and 1996. The net effect, says Dr Birrell, is to increase the concentration of non-English-speaking communities - mainly Asian and Middle Eastern - in Sydney, turning it into the country's "multicultural heartland".