sr71

As the other thread was closed, I though this timely article might be of interest

http://www.theage.com.au/national/th...0220-8dqu.html

Pretty much backs up what I was told by some Footscray based police officers and vast majority of these incidents are done by other ethnic groups, rather than 'white' Australians.

RCoight

It's irrelevant who does it, the fact that it happens and the police seem unable to stop means it's JUST WRONG.

Pomster

These attacks are awful- and see to be vastly under-reported here in Aus. IN Indian news, they are saying carefully consider going to Aus as there is a huge anti_indian sentiment.

I can't understand it, because (huge generalisation here) most Indian people seem to be pretty peaceable - although I wonder if people see Indian> think Pakistan> think terror attacks/Taliban.
Obviously wrong, but I cannot see any reason why Indians should be singled out against the other huge mix of races here.

Red_V_Roger

Man with ginger hair gets beat up - all Aussies are prejudice to people with red hair?

IndieG

Makes for very scary reading indeed. It appears that there has been a dramatic increase in crime rates within the past 2 years. I've visited several times (last visited in Jul 2006) and never felt unsafe. But then we never ventured anywhere near the western suburbs/or so called crime hot spots.

I feel (or hope it is) the motivation is robbery rather than it being purely race related. Indian students are probably considered soft targets.

It is ridiculous of the police to shift the onus on the Indian public - speak softly, no ipods and laptops

Petals

Obviously these attacks are happening but so are other attacks every weekend in the city against innocent people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think there is more of a gang culture these days as our young copy the American ways and obviously a lot of these groups are made up of people of similar ethnic background.

Some parts of the western suburbs are areas of disadvantage and there are problems with young people that comes with lack of education or encouragement in education and parental leadership. Jobs for unskilled people are becoming less available and that means these people have nothing to lose and because our prisons are already full and prison makes them worse not much is done in the end.

caliburn

With unemployment rising in recession etc., its only going to get worse.

letusenjoy79

On an optimistic note, I believe this phase will soon be over

Geelong Gent

Your optimistic about what comes after this?

sr71

There is never a genuine reason for any innocent person to be attacked by anybody else. These sorts of attacks are pretty sickening.

Indians have been in Australian society for decades, there are no real barriers to them IMO as many of them are extremely successful in business, IT, medicine and many other professions.

However the newer immigrants (fresh off the boat types) do tend to bring a lot of negative things that the general population do not like, including some of the Indians that have been here decades or 2nd generation. Many people do not like the perceived arrogance, poor hygiene, rudeness, lying, cheating etc that many of them engage in.

Melbourne taxi-drivers are a good example. Poor/zero area knowledge and/or English skills - sometimes used to cover up when they take you on a longer than necessary route, harassment of single women traveller - hardly a good advertisement for their fellow countrymen.

Then we have the experience of Indian call centres where customer service is dire, the off-shoring of Australian jobs to India and the large amount of Indian immigrants that have been coming into the country, often using pointless education courses as a shortcut to get PR.

Zambia

Sadly if a population feels under pressure as most western populations do now, simply due to the fact we all had it really easy in general for the past few year. This reaction will occur.

Every society has scumbags who attack people and claim some justification in nationalism as for attacks happening in bad western suburbs like those mentioned. If a white person with an ipod walked around a dodgy Mumbai suburb how far would they get.

I saw a documentary once where Indians in the UK where of the opinion there was enough Indians in the UK which I understand. Its like being on a nice train with lots of space , as the train fills you get squashed and you start to resent every new person on the train.

Petals

I agree to some extent and I also think that a lot of Indian businesses seem to only employ their fellow countrymen and this does not help either. The perception is that they are taking jobs away from the local population then and creating them for their own people. Not saying its wrong its natural to gravitate to where we feel more comfortable however it does not help for social cohesion. Its not just Indian businesses who do this but they are very visible and there are becoming more of them. Service stations are places where this seems to be happening.

What is the answer who knows but with any downturn the long term population get very testy about it and Aussies are not backward in coming forward about this.

inno

AUSTRALIA is a country of immigrants.No one ,i say no one should say others are immigrants excepts the Arborigians.THE TRUTH HURTS BUT IT THE truth.

Catch

carefull you will get a warning for this type of opinion as i did .Telling the truth attracts criticism,the uk has exactly the same problem.

IndieG

I don't think there are any "short cuts" to immigration to Australia and most certainly "pointless education courses" does not get you a PR.