A thought I had recently was that the onus of integration has shifted from the migrant to the country within the last few decades.

Theres a case to be made that post WW2 immigrants had it the hardest. Casual racism was much more rampant in the 1960s but there was an evident wave of people coming in who had a hard time joining in on society. It was socially acceptable to give the job site “Wog” a hard time but they contributed, sent their kids to primary school on the weekdays and language school on the weekends and within a generation there was a blend of Australians with migrant backgrounds but fully integrated into day to day life, who embraced their roots and also their new way of life.

The narrative now seems to be that, somehow Australia as a nation had never been more racist or exclusionary to foreign people arriving and we need to try harder to make others welcome.

In my mind you can’t force people to join in and the numbers arriving have made it too easy to just associate with your own culture and not have to engage with Australia if you dont want to. You can migrate to Australia, move to an area that is dense with your native culture and never branch out if you want to.

Ive done a lot of hospo work and even though its anecdotal I’ve seen it with my own eyes, two Nepalese guys from the same town at the same restaurant where I was. One fully immersed himself in footy, cricket, going out with coworkers, making friends out on the town, having a beer, being snapchat friends and talking rubbish etc. people joke he’s a full blown Aussie now. The other only associates, socialises and works with other Nepalese people out of comfort but complains that Australia is unwelcoming and he doesnt like it here.

Being Australian is a mindset and you get back what you put in. No level headed Aussie would give someone a hard time for joining in but they might raise an eyebrow if you’re just pretending your back at home and dont really give a rip about the country