Scanlon report on social cohesion uncovers a multicultural nation with wide horizons that still wrestles with treatment of immigrants and Islam

“Social cohesion is not a destination,” says Andrew Markus. “We don’t get to the destination and say we’ve done it. It’s something we need to work at.”

Markus is a Monash University professor who oversees the Scanlon reports, a now regular and widespread exercise to measure social cohesion in Australia. Its latest survey was completed by more than 10,000 Australian-born and immigrant respondents, which makes it the largest parallel survey of its kind. It was a mix of survey and focus groups, where a small group is interviewed.



The report – titled Australia Today – illuminates a people who are both hopeful and sometimes hurtful, largely cohesive but segmenting in a way that is becoming increasingly common in the midst of a communication revolution. It is fair to say we are mostly happy with our lives and what our country offers, though our background often determines our values. While Australian-born and overseas-born people value the freedom and democracy and the “Australian way of life”, those born overseas place a much higher value on education, climate and diversity. Those taken in under humanitarian visas treasure our freedom and democracy more than the rest of us.

We are not angels. There is discrimination, particularly towards the dark-skinned among us, Africans and Indigenous people. Muslims, particularly Muslim women, report high levels of discrimination. There is also a measure of reverse racism from migrants towards Australian-born people. As borders become more porous, the majority of us see ourselves as world citizens.

As a whole, we trust doctors, hospitals and the Medicare system, as well as schools, police, the courts and government departments. Not so much employers or for that matter, trade unions. Let’s not mention real estate agents. In their first five years on Australian soil, immigrants trust politicians and the parliament at much higher rates than the rest of the population. Then the things start to slide and they catch up with the attitudes of the mob.



Coincidentally, the survey was conducted during Malcolm Turnbull’s first five months in office – peak honeymoon. In the focus group studies, there is a recorded measure of relief within the Muslim community at the end of the “death cult” rhetoric of his predecessor Tony Abbott.



When NZ citizens were asked what they least like about Australia, 28% nominate racism and discrimination

“There was a feeling that Abbott was not acknowledging diversity in the Muslim community and was alienating people because of that,” Markus says.



There is also an intense frustration about the media’s portrayal of Islam for similar reasons. Indeed for Muslim respondents, their treatment by the media as an amorphous mass was a big issue. This is in spite of Muslim respondents having a high level of identification with Australia (72% identifying to a great or moderate extent and 75% indicating they were satisfied with life in Australia).



Less predictable is the struggle of New Zealand citizens residing in Australia to fit in. Markus says the NZ special category visa holders report relatively high levels of negativity, trust and racism. They have high levels of workforce participation and just 13% are “struggling to pay the bills”. But asked what they least like about Australia, 28% nominate racism and discrimination compared with 12% who nominate cost of living. Of the eight birthplaces considered in the survey, New Zealanders had the lowest levels of trust (10%) in Australian political parties.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anti-immigration protesters clash with police in Coburg, Melbourne, in May 2016. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

But the big shock for Markus was the discrimination experienced by people from sub-Saharan Africa, particularly South Sudan. They arrived during the Howard era and 77% reported some form of discrimination. Focus group participants reported unwitting discrimination from children shocked at their skin colour, employment discrimination and general “distancing” by people on the street as well as police harassment. Views included “the cops are racist”, “taxi drivers are racist”, “everybody’s racist”.

In shops ‘they follow you around ... they think you are going to steal ... even though you are about to pay. We go down the shopping centre to get some food, we get harassed, like telling us to move on.

One told a story of a Sudanese man sent to work in an aged care facility. He was very tall and his face had tribal scars.

As soon as they get into the aged care facility, all the older people start standing up, running to their rooms. And some of them start falling down ... ‘get away from him, get away from him, he’ll kill you too, he’ll kill you too’, they were saying that to my sister ... And my sister is like, she didn’t even know what to say, she was shocked and they couldn’t take that guy on, they had to send him back.

Recent arrivals feel a sense of belonging

We are a multicultural nation, where nearly half of us are born overseas or have a parent born overseas. We welcome 190,000 people a year under the immigration program, with 68% in the skilled stream, 32% in the family stream. Add on top another 13,750 humanitarian places.

Markus found the strength of identification with Australia remains at a high level among immigrants; 64% of recent arrivals (who came between 2001‐15) indicated a sense of belonging to a “great” or “moderate extent”, compared to 63% of respondents two years earlier.

They are optimistic, with only 6% of recent arrivals disagreeing with the statement that “Australia is a land of economic opportunity where in the long run, hard work brings a better life”. (Though that does widen to 18% for those who arrived further back – between 1991 and 1995.)

As you would expect, business (457) visa holders and independent skills reported better economic times, though the latter reported difficulty getting work. Online applications were difficult and for some, anglicising their name helped. One respondent said Australia was similar to a third world country where employment was based not on what you know but who you know.



Harder though is economic freedom for humanitarian entrants. Of respondents, 36% were employed, while 20% were looking for work with a relatively high proportion reporting they were “just getting by” or “poor”. Yet they remained positive about life in Australia with 81% satisfied with their life.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest A mother and a young girl attend a pro-refugee rally outside the Immigration Office in Brisbane in February 2016. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Discrimination the eye opener

Every time Markus goes into the field, his team is refining the data, watching the trends, thinking about new movements. This time, he was keen to tap into the African immigrant experience. In their last 2013 recent arrival survey, they got only 25 respondents born in sub-Saharan countries other than South Africa.



With effort, Scanlon received 166 South Sudanese respondents out of nearly 500 from Sub-Saharan countries. South Sudanese arrivals peaked in Australia from 1996 to 2005 in the Howard years under the humanitarian visa program. Of the respondents, 76% were satisfied with their life and 58% said life was more positive than they had expected.



Balanced against that outlook was high unemployment rates among respondents (23%), low levels of personal trust (4%) compared with the average for recent arrivals (37%) and low levels of trust in police (26%).

But it was experience of discrimination which was the real eye opener for Markus. In the previous 12 months, experience of reported discrimination was at 60% for Ethiopians, 67% for Kenyans, 75% for Zimbabweans and 77% for South Sudanese.

I didn’t think we would get 77% experience of discrimination. Andrew Markus, Monash University professor

Markus says the numbers show the issues may be worse than he first thought. Almost as shocking is the realisation that the numbers may be underestimated.

“I didn’t think we would get 77% experience of discrimination and it’s the way people talk about it that is surprising,” he said.



Is this the most recent migrant group again reflecting back? The same survey found 59% of Indigenous Australians reporting experiences of discrimination.



Markus, who has long been watching these trends, says the levels of culturally intolerant people in Australia are probably more like 20% of the population, instead of the 10% he was inclined to think.

Technology brings homeland closer

In the postwar years, migrant communities were almost completely cut off from their home towns and villages. Letters had to suffice and perhaps a phone call twice a year with the family gathered around. The communication revolution has changed that. Of arrivals between 2011 and 2015, 71% keep in contact with family or friends by SMS or social media daily or several times a week. Close to one in three arrivals between 2001 and 2015 watch televisions shows from their former home country at least several times a week.



Markus says while there is still more data required, such a change could have a fundamental impact on the immigrant experience in Australia.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Many recent arrivals keep in touch with relatives or friends every week. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

“Inexpensive technology means people in villages in India can buy a really cheap phone with cheap rates,” Markus says.



“That could fundamentally change Australia. The next generation choose their boundaries and choose their contacts so the centre is weakened because you can be just as well connected to an interest group across the world.”



Asked if it could change nation states, Markus says: “It brings it into question, doesn’t it?”

Pockets of diversity

Markus found a prominent theme in focus group discussion related to the cleaving of diverse multicultural areas and monocultural areas – with participants talking about the visual difference on the street.

There are comments such as these:

I’ve got a lot of friends who come from the affluent side of Melbourne and they come from old Australian money and to them, I am like this foreign being because I’m half Asian, I’m half European but born here. When I’m in Broadmeadows I’m just normal.

Or this:

Coming from my white workplace ... like extremely white ... walking from the station to Bankstown library ... I saw Asians and I saw a woman in hijab and I saw someone that was an Islander and I just thought ‘friggin hell, why is this not reflected in my workplace ... Like this is actually Australia, that’s not Australia, that’s white Australia’.

So diversity continues but is contained. And Scanlon national surveys in the past four years show 56% either support the current intake or feel that it should be increased.



But this year, 40% of Australian-born respondents considered the intake too high and that grew to 44% for Australian-born with both parents Australian born, known as third generation Australians.



At the same time, when asked what they least liked about Australia, the first choice of 18% of third generation respondents was racism and discrimination. Another 19% of third generation Australians said too much immigration. There is Australia’s race debate. They really need to get together.



Men (35%) were more likely to reject cultural diversity than women (17%)

Once Markus and his team started breaking it down according to the ethnic and cultural tolerance scale (where a low score rejects cultural diversity), 26% Australian-born respondents and 29% of third generation Australians had low scores. This split showed men (35%) were more likely to reject diversity than women (17%). Once the scores were split on address, city respondents (18% rejection of diversity) had lower rates than inner regional (25%) and outer regional (39%).



“This highlights polarisation, what it shows is Pauline Hanson is not a surprise. That demographic is clearly identifiable,” Markus says.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest One Nation senator Pauline Hanson arrives at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

But he also warns warns against jumping to conclusions – saying he also found intolerance in overseas-born Australians towards Australian-born people. Examples from respondents include women being told to cover up by Muslim Australians.



It’s not like we’re doing nothing ...

For someone who has been studying the issues for so long, Markus is highly aware of the complexity – refusing to drop into stereotypes on migration, culture, race and religion.



Asked how Australia compares globally, or with a comparable country such as Canada, Markus shrugs. “Ah [Canadian prime minister Justin] Trudeau. Different leadership – and the way he speaks is important”.



“Australians tend to react to spectacular injustice,” he says. “We react to Don Dale [juvenile detention centre] but what about the asylum seekers? What is going to happen to them? We have a capacity to put it aside.



“Still, it’s not like Australia is doing nothing. It’s actually managing a large resettlement program, given its population and on top of that it has the 12,000 Syrians to take in.



“It’s not an inconsiderable contribution in terms of cost to government, given we are taking in people in the first generation who are going to have big difficulties, and maybe second generation as well.”



If there is a difficulty with the Scanlon report Australia Today, it is the sheer volume of information which portrays the complexity of Australia’s culture. Conclusions are difficult to draw – the glass could be half full or half empty. But the exercise continues to be worthwhile.