How have you found the Aussies?

[grahamffc]

"I'm sorry mate I didn't realise you were indigenous"...or something along those lines was always my favourite response.

[ramot]

Of course but that wasn't really what we were talking about, we were talking specifically about the UK.

 

Actually as mentioned before the original point of the thread was nothing to do with the UK, well certainly not in the way it has become, just certain posters seem determined as usual to change a thread to promote their own agenda.

[JockinTas]

I don't think I am being over sensitive to my wife being called a slanted eye ch%&£ or people assuming that she is with me only for my money because "that's what them Asian women do" (she has a very good job and gettes paid more than me) or she going to buy all the houses in the area and fill up all the schools in the area with them "little yellow something like in box hill" and as I have said this is my experience you might be lucky enough to not have had this happen to you but I can't change what has happen to me and if your sister in-law want to call her own children that, then that is up to her but I find it offensive and would rather not have my children called that.

 

My eldest son's partner has Chinese parents - she considers herself Australian as she was born here. She has NEVER had racist remarks made to her. She's a beautiful, intelligent, confident girl with a very good job and they live in a Sydney suburb (Newtown) where everything goes. Nobody gives a rat's arse who you are or where you're from there. Perhaps Sydney is more tolerant but having said that there are ignorant, red necks everywhere ............ in every country.

[flag of convenience]

But didn't you say that Aussies think you are aggressive? Now you say you are aren't like that, but why do you think Aussies think you are?

 

I've covered all this ground on previous occasions. I refer to the workplace in general and not necessary personal encounters but can be inclusive on occasions. If you had attended some of the organisation's meetings I had and observed how few spoke out on/up against proposals that didn't agree with but somehow intimidated by those in positions to voice dissent but then complain like hell afterwards you would have some idea to what I mean. I also wrote about the board almost coming to blows and management and even staff having to come between them to prevent violence. So rather a paradox in personality traits I suppose you could say.

[flag of convenience]

My eldest son's partner has Chinese parents - she considers herself Australian as she was born here. She has NEVER had racist remarks made to her. She's a beautiful, intelligent, confident girl with a very good job and they live in a Sydney suburb (Newtown) where everything goes. Nobody gives a rat's arse who you are or where you're from there. Perhaps Sydney is more tolerant but having said that there are ignorant, red necks everywhere ............ in every country.

 

Although saying that Newtown is the centre of Sydney cool (usually stay there when in that city)so one would be a little aghast to learn of abusive racial slurs there.

Same for the area I live in Perth. Be unthinkable almost. I'm pretty sure someone would intervene if that happened.

 

Who can say in some of the battler burbs? I'd like to think it a rare event but no way of knowing only from people of different race or connected to the subject. My Devon acquaintance hasn't experienced it with his Indonesian wife but was almost was bashed in the city shortly after arriving in the late 80's due to his strong accent and the fact that another took a dislike to him.

[flag of convenience]

I don't think I am being over sensitive to my wife being called a slanted eye ch%&£ or people assuming that she is with me only for my money because "that's what them Asian women do" (she has a very good job and gettes paid more than me) or she going to buy all the houses in the area and fill up all the schools in the area with them "little yellow something like in box hill" and as I have said this is my experience you might be lucky enough to not have had this happen to you but I can't change what has happen to me and if your sister in-law want to call her own children that, then that is up to her but I find it offensive and would rather not have my children called that.

 

You are certainly not being over sensitive on this matter. I just hope it is not a sign of the times. Unleashed anger due to falling conditions and people unable to get ahead looking for scapegoats. The government doing no favours in spotlighting seekers of asylum as wanting to invade the country and impose alien lifestyles, while pumping up immigration to record levels, feeding the housing Ponzi with allowing overseas buyers purchase will limited checks, (could easily unleash anti Chinese/Asian ) feelings. New groups like Reclaim Australia sprouting their Anti Muslim rhetoric. Do we have reasons to be concerned?

[flag of convenience]

??? Who are these 'others?'

 

In this instance I hadn't given consideration to the fairies at the bottom of the garden, but may as well get their opinion on the matter as well.

[MARYROSE02]

In this instance I hadn't given consideration to the fairies at the bottom of the garden, but may as well get their opinion on the matter as well.

 

Oh, you mean 'THE Others!'

[MARYROSE02]

You are certainly not being over sensitive on this matter. I just hope it is not a sign of the times. Unleashed anger due to falling conditions and people unable to get ahead looking for scapegoats. The government doing no favours in spotlighting seekers of asylum as wanting to invade the country and impose alien lifestyles, while pumping up immigration to record levels, feeding the housing Ponzi with allowing overseas buyers purchase will limited checks, (could easily unleash anti Chinese/Asian ) feelings. New groups like Reclaim Australia sprouting their Anti Muslim rhetoric. Do we have reasons to be concerned?[/QUOTE]

 

You might have reasons to be concerned, but I don't.

[Guest]

I don't think I am being over sensitive to my wife being called a slanted eye ch%&£ or people assuming that she is with me only for my money because "that's what them Asian women do" (she has a very good job and gettes paid more than me) or she going to buy all the houses in the area and fill up all the schools in the area with them "little yellow something like in box hill" and as I have said this is my experience you might be lucky enough to not have had this happen to you but I can't change what has happen to me and if your sister in-law want to call her own children that, then that is up to her but I find it offensive and would rather not have my children called that.

 

I don't think that you're being over-sensitive at all mrgray. I think what your family have been exposed to is nothing short of appalling and quite deliberate racism.

[bristolman]

You are certainly not being over sensitive on this matter. I just hope it is not a sign of the times. Unleashed anger due to falling conditions and people unable to get ahead looking for scapegoats. The government doing no favours in spotlighting seekers of asylum as wanting to invade the country and impose alien lifestyles, while pumping up immigration to record levels, feeding the housing Ponzi with allowing overseas buyers purchase will limited checks, (could easily unleash anti Chinese/Asian ) feelings. New groups like Reclaim Australia sprouting their Anti Muslim rhetoric. Do we have reasons to be concerned?[/QUOTE]

 

You might have reasons to be concerned, but I don't.

 

Are you saying you aren't concerned about racist groups or sentiment ?

[BacktoDemocracy]

 

Are you saying you aren't concerned about racist groups or sentiment ?

 

I think all the liberals on this site are but there is no accounting for the wind-ups who seem to imagine that holding forth with prejudice makes them stand out from the crowd for some reason

[bristolman]

29 pages later the conclusion, quite rightly, seems to be that Aussies are, shock horror, just like anyone else anywhere else. Some good, some bad, some racists, some rude, some xenophobic, some friendly, some helpful etc etc.

[JockinTas]

Yep, that about sums it up :cute:

[BacktoDemocracy]

Sorry EW but I honestly really do find that weird.

I have moved at least 17 times because of my husbands job, and have made it home every time because that was what it was, because my family was with me, and that was the only important thing.

I learnt to live in the here and now not constantly hanker after what if!

 

Most of us posters only know each other through what is written, and it seems to me the glass half full posters post mainly positive posts, whereas the half empty come across mainly sad, often bitter. Just my interpretation, but seen a lot of it over the years.

 

trust me it wasn't easy constantly moving, some places harder than others, think nearly 10 years in a Muslim country, but I honestly don't think I ever blamed the place as much as some posters do.

 

If anyone makes the decision to emigrate for whatever the reason, then they must shoulder some of the blame if unhappy, not just constantly moan/blame the country, because not many are forced to emigrate.

Life can go wrong wherever you live.

 

I think what people find frustrating and difficult and leads to it appearing that they are constantly moaning is the feeling that there are what seem to be a number of quite obvious problems for immigrants in Oz, but as soon as they are voiced people feel drowned out by the chorus of denials about how that is not the case, and if you know that you are not staying somewhere permanently then it is often easier to ignore the defects but if you have moved somewhere to make it your home then the problems can grow to be a real barrier to it working.

 

There is some truth in it being about 'what if' but at the same time people are struggling to make some sense of what goes on around them and relating it back to their previous lives and asking why is it like this and are frustrated by the lack, sometimes, of a credible answer.

 

My experience is that in the UK there is more dissent from main stream thinking and that when people from outside question why things happen as they do there is some consideration given to the criticism, or at least that is how I feel about it and how I felt in Oz, and how after 8 years of walking on eggshells around anything that might be considered a criticism I decided enough was enough.

[MARYROSE02]

 

Are you saying you aren't concerned about racist groups or sentiment ?

 

Of course I am concerned, but I also think it is 'overblown.' Every time there is another atrocity committed by ISIS, or another terrorist attack involving an Islamic group, eg in Paris and Kenya, this year, that negatively affects my opinion of Islam. But a handful of people in Advance Australia holding demonstrations has negligible affect on my views, other than making me dislike the groups that use violence to try to stop them holding their rallies. Most Australians propbably could not care less about Advance Australia. I don't need Advance Australia to tell me what to think. I don't like the burkha and I think halal butchery is cruel and should be banned. I don't think that because of Advance Australia.

 

Every time there is a racist attack on a bus or a train, some people start screaming about how it is yet another example of the racist views that all most Australians nurture, whereas I see it as a minority view.

 

You seem to have a very low opinion of the majority of our population, yet how many times do we really explode into the sort of racist violence you keep going on about? Cronulla was the only really bad example and that was ten years ago. Compare the situation to Britain. How many riots have there been there?

 

Most of all, I hate the accusation of 'racism' being used to try to stamp out any form of debate. There are up to 120,000 homeless people in Australia. (I read this in the Fairfax Press Sydney Morning Herald, so it must be right.) Some or all of them are on the waitling list for public housing, which stretches for years, decades even. Yet you want unlimited intake of asylum seekers? Why is it racist to wonder where we would house them?

 

I live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-diversity society, and it seems to be pretty successful to me. Advance Australia is not going to destroy it, nor a few isolated cases of racism.

[MARYROSE02]

I think what people find frustrating and difficult and leads to it appearing that they are constantly moaning is the feeling that there are what seem to be a number of quite obvious problems for immigrants in Oz, but as soon as they are voiced people feel drowned out by the chorus of denials about how that is not the case, and if you know that you are not staying somewhere permanently then it is often easier to ignore the defects but if you have moved somewhere to make it your home then the problems can grow to be a real barrier to it working.

 

There is some truth in it being about 'what if' but at the same time people are struggling to make some sense of what goes on around them and relating it back to their previous lives and asking why is it like this and are frustrated by the lack, sometimes, of a credible answer.

 

My experience is that in the UK there is more dissent from main stream thinking and that when people from outside question why things happen as they do there is some consideration given to the criticism, or at least that is how I feel about it and how I felt in Oz, and how after 8 years of walking on eggshells around anything that might be considered a criticism I decided enough was enough.

 

Well, that is your experience and your opinion, and I daresay you might find one or two Aussies who left England to return to Australia for exactly the same reasons that you left Australia. Personally, as someone else just said above, I think Australia is much the same as anywhere else, especially Britain, where we both have much the same freedoms, based on much the same laws and history.

[BacktoDemocracy]

 

Of course I am concerned, but I also think it is 'overblown.' Every time there is another atrocity committed by ISIS, or another terrorist attack involving an Islamic group, eg in Paris and Kenya, this year, that negatively affects my opinion of Islam. But a handful of people in Advance Australia holding demonstrations has negligible affect on my views, other than making me dislike the groups that use violence to try to stop them holding their rallies. Most Australians propbably could not care less about Advance Australia. I don't need Advance Australia to tell me what to think. I don't like the burkha and I think halal butchery is cruel and should be banned. I don't think that because of Advance Australia.

 

Every time there is a racist attack on a bus or a train, some people start screaming about how it is yet another example of the racist views that all most Australians nurture, whereas I see it as a minority view.

 

You seem to have a very low opinion of the majority of our population, yet how many times do we really explode into the sort of racist violence you keep going on about? Cronulla was the only really bad example and that was ten years ago. Compare the situation to Britain. How many riots have there been there?

 

Most of all, I hate the accusation of 'racism' being used to try to stamp out any form of debate. There are up to 120,000 homeless people in Australia. (I read this in the Fairfax Press Sydney Morning Herald, so it must be right.) Some or all of them are on the waitling list for public housing, which stretches for years, decades even. Yet you want unlimited intake of asylum seekers? Why is it racist to wonder where we would house them?

 

I live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-diversity society, and it seems to be pretty successful to me. Advance Australia is not going to destroy it, nor a few isolated cases of racism.

 

Could I refer you to my post 291, which i think is relevant.

It's not the problem that is the problem it's the response to the problem that is so problematic.

[BacktoDemocracy]

Well, that is your experience and your opinion, and I daresay you might find one or two Aussies who left England to return to Australia for exactly the same reasons that you left Australia. Personally, as someone else just said above, I think Australia is much the same as anywhere else, especially Britain, where we both have much the same freedoms, based on much the same laws and history.

 

But that is exactly what i am talking about is the denial that there are any problems so therefore the problem is all in the eye of the beholder and there are no problems which are intrinsic to Australia and Australia alone.

I am sure that there are Australians who leave the uk and I can guess why, because of the Class system, the terrible weather and, to the Australian palette, the dark ales served at room temperature and the sense of living in a very crowded island, and I would agree with them on at least 3 of those complaints and want to engage in a discussion about some aspects of those issues and how there are counterbalances to them.

[bristolman]

 

Of course I am concerned, but I also think it is 'overblown.' Every time there is another atrocity committed by ISIS, or another terrorist attack involving an Islamic group, eg in Paris and Kenya, this year, that negatively affects my opinion of Islam. But a handful of people in Advance Australia holding demonstrations has negligible affect on my views, other than making me dislike the groups that use violence to try to stop them holding their rallies. Most Australians propbably could not care less about Advance Australia. I don't need Advance Australia to tell me what to think. I don't like the burkha and I think halal butchery is cruel and should be banned. I don't think that because of Advance Australia.

 

Every time there is a racist attack on a bus or a train, some people start screaming about how it is yet another example of the racist views that all most Australians nurture, whereas I see it as a minority view.

 

You seem to have a very low opinion of the majority of our population, yet how many times do we really explode into the sort of racist violence you keep going on about? Cronulla was the only really bad example and that was ten years ago. Compare the situation to Britain. How many riots have there been there?

 

Most of all, I hate the accusation of 'racism' being used to try to stamp out any form of debate. There are up to 120,000 homeless people in Australia. (I read this in the Fairfax Press Sydney Morning Herald, so it must be right.) Some or all of them are on the waitling list for public housing, which stretches for years, decades even. Yet you want unlimited intake of asylum seekers? Why is it racist to wonder where we would house them?

 

I live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-diversity society, and it seems to be pretty successful to me. Advance Australia is not going to destroy it, nor a few isolated cases of racism.

 

I seem to have a low opinion of the majority of the population ? Are you sure you quoted the right person? You couldn't be more wrong. We both live in multi ethnic, multi cultural societies that by and large work well. Long may we both enjoy them.

I want unlimited intake of asylum seekers ? Now I am really confused, you really didn't quote the right person.

[MARYROSE02]

 

Could I refer you to my post 291, which i think is relevant.

It's not the problem that is the problem it's the response to the problem that is so problematic.

 

Or in other words, it's not the problem that is the problem, but it's the response to the problem, that is the problem? I understand now.

[MARYROSE02]

29 pages later the conclusion, quite rightly, seems to be that Aussies are, shock horror, just like anyone else anywhere else. Some good, some bad, some racists, some rude, some xenophobic, some friendly, some helpful etc etc.

 

 

That is probably the experience of most of us, moving to a country that is basically the same as the one we left, which is what you would expect from two countries which share so many similar institutions. Most people who are happy in the UK are also happy in Australia. I suspect that the minority who are unhappy in Australia, are probably unhappy in the UK.

[Booma]

I don't think I am being over sensitive to my wife being called a slanted eye ch%&£ or people assuming that she is with me only for my money because "that's what them Asian women do" (she has a very good job and gettes paid more than me) or she going to buy all the houses in the area and fill up all the schools in the area with them "little yellow something like in box hill" and as I have said this is my experience you might be lucky enough to not have had this happen to you but I can't change what has happen to me and if your sister in-law want to call her own children that, then that is up to her but I find it offensive and would rather not have my children called that.

 

yes that is not good but you didnt say that in your fist post. im glad i havent met people like those.

[MARYROSE02]

'That's what them Asians do' sounds like the mark of someone is who uncouth and uneducated to start with. Are they racist or unpleasant or both? Is it an isolated case, or does this sort of thing happen across Australia on a daily basis?

 

Is racism worse in Australia than the UK? I don't know. I have not seen any statistics. I can think of some very unpleasant crimes in the UK over the years, and there are no doubt some in Australia.

 

What else have we learnt from this thread? That many British migrants find it hard to settle into life in Australia for the first couple of years or so? Nothing new there. Moving is stressful even within your own country, let alone moving ten thousand miles. Having settled successfully into life in Australia, I then went through the same period of unsettling feelings when I decided to move back to the UK, and then again for a third time when I came back to Sydney.

 

A MINORITY of British migrants never settle and they go back to the UK for good, although some of them come to regret that decision. The majority of British migrants to Australia are happy here. It's always been that way. End of.

[JockinTas]

Honestly MaryR - there are racists in every country - probably the worst place would be the rednecks in the US. I had to grit my teeth many times to make myself shut up when I heard blatant racist remarks. I hear remarks here too but they're usually made by ignorant fools who don't know any better.