The “Mapping Social Cohesion 2020” report by the Scanlon Foundation presents data and facts on the attitudes of Australians during the tumultuous year of 2020. There were 2 surveys conducted – one in July and the other in November 2020 and it consisted of 140 question to gage what Australians think about the going ons of Australia’s population issues, immigration and social cohesion. Here are some of the key results from 5000 + respondents:
- 84% of respondents believed that multiculturalism was a good thing for Australia;
- 90% of respondents agreed that a person who was born overseas is just as likely to be a good citizen as someone who is born in Australia;
- 47% of respondents had negative feelings towards Chinese Australians as a result of the pandemic and the anti-Asian rhetoric in Australia;
- 49% of respondents had negative feelings towards Iraqi and Sudanese Australians as a result of the pandemic and the racist rhetoric in Australia;
- 37% of respondents had negative feelings towards Australians who are Muslim;
Of the Asian Australian respondents:
- 59% of respondents born in an Asian country thought racism was ‘a very big problem’ or ‘fairly big problem’ in Australia;
- 39% of respondents said they had experienced discrimination;
- A special “in-language” survey found that the majority of Chinese Australians declined to answer the question on whether they have had negative experiences of racism;
- 29% of Chinese Australians stated that they have experienced some type of racism since the start of the Pandemic;
Molina Asthana, the head convener for the Victorian branch of the Asian Australian Alliance told SBS News:
“It is shocking, but it is not surprising,”
“We have received, so far, 500 reports of racism against Asians in Australia. Over 60 per cent of the incidents were racial slurs, or verbal abuse, or being spat upon,”
“The shocking part is 90 per cent of them were not reported to any authorities,”
“We are asking, ‘what are we doing about this problem?’”
“There [are] things that we want to see changed, and we hope that action is taken.”
You can access the full Scanlon Foundation report by clicking here.
Images via SBS News
To read the full SBS New article, please click on: Most Australians support immigration but negativity towards some minorities persists