There has been a fundamental change in attitude to immigration

POSITIVE attitudes to immigration are weathering the economic downturn, suggesting there has been a fundamental shift away from viewing migrants as scapegoats for societal problems.

The Mapping Social Cohesion Survey of 3500 people, to be released today, shows that only 37 per cent of Australians believe the migrant intake is too high, virtually unchanged from when the economy was booming in 2007.

It is also well down from the 60-70 per cent range during the recession-hit early 1990s and the height of Hansonism in 1996-98.

But the survey underscored the potential for ethnic tensions to flare in some poor areas, finding that nearly 70 per cent of long-time Australians living in areas with large numbers of immigrants believed too many were coming into the country.

These areas also tended to be economically disadvantaged, suggesting they could become trouble spots if the economy worsened and unemployment jumped significantly.

Report author Andrew Markus of Monash University said: "The potential is that if the economy goes sour and we again find ourselves in a situation of 10-15 per cent unemployment, we may have a different outcome

(to the positive survey results) in areas of high immigrant concentration."

Professor Markus said he was surprised that attitudes about migrants had not been hardened by the economic downturn. When Australia was last in recession, in 1991, anti-immigration sentiment was measured at a 30-year high.

In the latest survey, 68 per cent of respondents agreed that immigration made the country stronger, while only 9 per cent had strongly negative views on immigration and diversity.

Business tycoon Peter Scanlon, whose Scanlon Foundation funds the survey, said the positive views on immigration suggested there had been a fundamental shift in attitudes.

He said migrants were no longer seen as "scapegoats" for problems but as key to helping offset Australia's ageing population. "There is an enormous maturity that has grown since the 1980s about understanding the role that diversity plays, and that it is part of Australia," Mr Scanlon said.

Professor Markus said the data highlighted the need to address public safety and crime in poorer areas with large immigrant populations.

Source: theaustralian.com.au