Rambi

Not sure that's useful for comparison as they had Muslim colonies.

asprilla

I think we can only make predictions about Aus demographics over the next 10, 20 or 30yrs.....and not centuries.

So looking at the USA and the UK, not Spain and France, would be more appropriate in my opinion.

Vegemite Kids

Jakarta -> Sydney 5507km

But....

Jakarta -> Darwin 2736km
Sydney -> Darwin 3148km, so Darwin is nearer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney

Jakarta -> Perth 3011km
Sydney -> Perth 3288km, so Perth is also nearer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney



Sydney is not Australia.

Australia is very near to Indonesia, regardless of how far away you think Sydney is from Jakarta

renth

Spain didn't have Muslim colonies AFAIK. However, most of Spain was a predominantly Muslim country for about 100 years (929 to 1031)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_of_C%C3%B3rdoba

Phlanger

All good points - not meaning to single out Arabs btw, just an example.

Rambi

I know Sydney's not Australia and neither is Darwin nor Perth. Where do most of the migrants go? Darwin? Perth? I don't think so.

I live near Melbourne which is even further away from Jakarta and probably gets more migrants than Darwin and Perth combined.

The point I was making is that no matter that Australia is next door to Indonesia it's not like UK and France (say) or most neighbouring countries around the world. Most of the population of Indonesia and particularly the Muslim ones live on the bit that is a long way from Australia. Most Australians live in the bit of Australia that is a long way from Indonesia. Comparatively speaking in comparison to other neighbouring countries of the world, Australia is a long way from Indonesia.

It's a long way to travel and therefore it's no easier for Muslim Indonesians to get here than other Asians.

to you too.

PS: Dover is closer to Calais than to London. But I bet there are more French people working in London than in Dover.

Rambi

I'll just go and check. I thought Spain had some hegemony over Morocco at one point.

Apparently "Before 1985, Moroccans did not require visas to enter Spain".

renth

They do have colonies in Morocco - Ceuta and Melilla and they still think it's OK to give the British shit over Gibraltar.

Deancm_MKII

Only have to hop over to Papua New Guinea and do a bit of island hopping to Indonesia. Not that difficult really and PNG is relatively close.

Rambi

But where are the Muslims? Not in PNG

And where do most Indonesians live? Not in West Papua.

Come on folks. I can't believe you can't see the point. Aus is a very large country. It's the size of a continent. Indonesia is a very large country. The heavily populated bits are a long way from each other. It's not a convenient hop across the channel. Is someone giving out free stoopid juice today? And Dean. Check out Charlie Boorman's trip from Sydney to Tokyo and you will see that your suggestion is much easier said than done.

Deancm_MKII

I did say you would need to do a bit of island hopping...

Rambi

When Charlie Boorman tried it, to get from PNG to West Papua he had to go via Singapore and Jakarta. That's serious island hopping.

the troubadour

Indonesians do not feature largely in Australia's immigration figures strangely.

Only 50,900 were registered in the last 06 census. Most of those living in NSW.

Of that number Muslims mafde up far less than half. Most were ethnic Chinese. Percentage had increased by 18 % on five years earlier though.

BadgeIsBack

I can see where Weebie is coming from even if he caches it in terms that annoy. Location is as important here as the TV programming in the UK has us believe.

To be fair, to be exact, I would say that Australians don't so much as look down on the outer suburbs but there is a implicit understanding that the closer to the city you are the more opportunities there are. Anyone who has any experience of a range of demographics will see this reflected in many aspects of life in industry and outside work. To be fair though, it probably matters to the people who do live 'in'! There are huge exceptions - people who choose to live out - for example to be on acreage - and naturally the people who are country - tied to the country - and would have it no other way.

The real stigma if at all is in the cheap outer areas - SW Sydney? not all outer areas are 'cheap'.

Of course most Australian relish their suburban dream upbringing...it's all very well - suburban upbringing might have been 20k out in the 60s...

As for government workers - there are plenty of hard-working govt workers but I would say that some people might stay there when they would be found out elsewhere....and of course, they might have the last laugh...

tonyk38

I think this only apples to Aussies in the bigger cities. This simply doesn't apply to somewhere like Cairns where the outer suburbs are no more than 15 minutes from the centre (going west; much longer going north or south).

The most expensive suburbs here are a curious mix of the older established burbs with lots of Queenslanders (Edgehill (where I live), Stratford); nicer beach suburbs (Palm Cove, Kewarra Beach); and shiteholes on the edge of the CBD (Parramatta Park).

No real 'inner v outer' thing happening, but then southerners do tend to suffer culture shock when they move here and realise that the 'city sophisticate' snobbery simply doesn't exist up here and is not welcome.