Monday, September 29, 2008

Majority of Australians still hold racist feelings

29 Sep 2008, 0827 hrs IST,PTI

MELBOURNE: Despite international migration growing in Australia, around majority of Australians still hold racist feelings with one in 10 Australians having those views, according to a new study.

New South Wales tops the list with racist views, with lead researcher on the project Kevin Dunn pin pointing Sydney being the focus of international migration to Australia.

The study, led by human geography and urban studies Professor Dunn and his team from Western Sydney University, has revealed racism in Australia has waned over the years but the figures remain high, according to an AAP report.

The Anti-Racism Research Project had randomly surveyed over 12,500 people in different studies during the past eight years.

Prof Dunn attributes the results to people's overarching views.

"It's an indicator of a narrow view of what constitutes Australianism," he was quoted by the report.

When people were asked which cultural/ethnic groups do not fit into Australian society, NSW topped the list with 46 per cent of respondents saying some ethnic groups should not be in the country.

Dunn said "The most often-mentioned groups were Muslims or people from the Middle East." The overall figures surge to 65 per cent for people over 65 but drop to 31 per cent for those aged 18 to 34.

"It's too high, isn't it," Dunn said adding "We've got to bring that down." On average, about one in 10 people said it was not good for people of different cultures to marry and about the same number said not all races are equal. "It's only about one in 10 people now in Australia across the different states that would have that sort of view the racial supremacists for instance," Dunn said.  

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