xl99

Hi All,

I have lived all my life in England; my company that I work for has won a major contract in Perth, and wants me to go there as a senior product manager but requires me to permanently swap base to OZ due to the long duration of the contract.

I don’t know much about Australia, what I do know is that the weather is really nice… and the only time I have come across an Australian person was when I was at school and my school teacher was Australian; I remember my New Zealander school teacher who said negative (rant) things about Australia something along the lines of "blah blah… racism.. blah blah ..aboriginal people maltreatment". (I don’t recall exactly what he said).

Anyway this prompted me to google about Australia and to cut the long story short, my question is Australia safe for me to travel to? And obviously … racism agaisnt black/white etc does occur everywhere in the world… but it seems Australia is very volatile at the moment atleast from the current media attention to this domain.

Please don’t feel like giving me a PC answer, if it is truly volatile on the ground, please let me know your honest thoughts.

Thanks,

J.

ozzieeagle

To be blunt.... Indians and those from around the Sub Contient are having quite a difficult time at present. Whereas S E Asians and Chinese seem to have very little if no problem. I'm not 100 pct sure what the reasons are for this. Ability and willingness to assimilate freely seems to be a factor to me.

Pretty sure if you mix easily with the locals.... Like most of our Hong Kong migrants then you wont have any issues you dont already have in the UK.

Amazulu

We know several British Asian families here in Perth (children at my son's school). They seem to be doing okay and enjoying their life here. As for racism, I don't know as the subject has never been discussed.

Bermudashorts

There are loads of people of Asian origin in Australia. I have personally not noticed any difference in attitude or behaviours here in Sydney versus London where I lived for most of the previous 15 years. I am white so speaking from my observations only.

JAJ

If they want you to relocate permanently, they should help you get a permanent visa. Not a temporary one.

As for relocation issues, assuming you're a British citizen and you say you've lived all your life in the United Kingdom, you shouldn't necessarily find it any more difficult than any other British citizen to assimilate into Australia. Many Australian citizens are of Asian descent. So much depends on individual mindset.

Pomster

I had read that a lot of the attacks on Indian people were basically robberies.

It seems to be that a lot on Indian folk (from India) live in cheap/poor areas, as they are more affordable against currency exchange rates, but have ipod, iphones etc and are not too cautious about using them in these less desirable areas.
can't really comment if this is right, but it seems like a reasonable interpretation.
My H (SE Asia) never encountered racism, so can't comment from a personal point of view.

...and this is all a Melbourne perspective which is a looooonnnnggg way from Perth.

alexswift

[QUOTE=xl99;9819073]Hi All,

Australia is well known for its "casual racism" so you will need a thick skin to ignore it. I am a white and from the North of England via London so would have though to have seen it all but was a little shocked by it here.

Here it is everything from sports personalities punching Taxi Drivers and not getting sacked by the club and the club chairman blaming it on drink to Ch9 TV news shows on the subject of taxi drivers must speak the language and the tone the presenter uses.

SHOULD TAXI DRIVERS BE ABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2s8uBOj3eg

IS AUSTRALIA RACIST? ASK SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE'S A R RAHMAN
( just love the interviewer saying Indians working in 7-11 and taxi etc.. casual racism at work here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AM9FMPyzkg

Australian football star beats up Indian cab driver in Melbourne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcLmTZJpCuE

Summary is I am f-ing appalled AS I AM IN THE UK when I hear this shit, it goes on all over the world. If you can live in the UK with the appalling UK attitudes then you will be OK here. You will notice it more here because you will be new and more observant to what is around you and what is said.

alexswift

Also this blog give you the idea http://auswatch.blogspot.com/2006/10...ustralian.html

ozzieeagle

How on earth do you make the quantam leap of videos 1 and 3 being racist ?

If you want to catch a Cab and say you've got a fully French or German speaker driving and ask him "I'd like to go to such and such an address in Hawthorn and can you go via the bottle shop up the road" and you cant get the driver to understand a small deviation then that surely is what a Cab driver would need to know to save frustation

How on Earth do you make Video 3 out to be racist ? It could have been any driver.

Video 2 I take your point.

alexswift

How on earth do you make the quantum leap of videos 1 and 3 being racist ?

You don't have to use recognised words to make a negative or discriminatory statement about race or situation. Take the presenters condescending tone of voice.

Vid 3 its self no but the incident yes. The football player pulled the guys Turban from his head handed him a beating while shouting racial slurs at him and was arrested, released and then charged for that offence .. Then the CLUB and the STATE PREM attempts to sweep it under the carpet blaming booze and been out late. I call BS on that!

ozzieeagle

I dont remember that at all... .nor can I find any reference to Turban pulling or Racial slurs in this case ?

You would think if it was to be a true racial attack that part would have been played up by the Indian Media ?


Are you sure your not confusing it with this incident ?

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mor...-1226131715187

slapphead_otool

Hmmmmm.... My 2c worth.

It depends upon your attitude to a large degree. Let me give you an example:

I worked in the IT industry for over a decade. I worked with, for and with people from all over the world. The biggest problems i had were with people from the Indian sub continent. The cause was the class structure that exists in that region, and is absent from Australia. This makes SOME people from the Indian region appear to be arrogant.

I can understand that if you come from India where you had servants, drivers and people who did the work for you, it is a shock to set foot in egalitarian Australia. But that is how it is here.

Waving your degree collection under my nose, and telling me that its not your job to do something that urgently needs doing, doesn't help you to assimilate. It is even worse when the degrees being waved under my nose were clearly fakes, and the CV was a figment of someones imagination (which was why the worker was refusing to perform the task).

Having said that, I NEVER had a problem with British born Indians, or those who were used to working in Western systems.

All of which is a long way of saying its an attitude issue and not a shade of skin issue.

Mate, get your ass down here and enjoy living in Australia. I don't think you will have any problems.

Tr1boy

I'd very much echo what Slaphead said.

After 21yrs in Oz, I realise how much 'Aussiness' there is in me when I hear the term Asian here in the UK as it applies to Indians/Pakistanis, my mind always defaults to SE Asia. (I'm not sure why this is a shock, nearly half of my life has been in Oz now)

I won't repeat what my Korean wife says about the matter.

slapphead_otool

I would add that my wife is japanese, and I am a long way from being racist...

Tr1boy

I wasn't suggesting you were, hope I didn't infer that

It was just a silly obversation about how my mind works when i hear the word Asian. To me Asia is SE Asia and in the UK the same region is 'the far east'.