Australia’s thoughts towards racism might be heading in the right direction according to a new study.
The Scanlon Foundation’s yearly ‘Mapping Social Cohesion Report’ was released on Tuesday and asked participants the question: “How big a problem is racism in Australia?”
The big news is that this year 60% of respondents said they rated racism as a ‘very big problem’, up from only 40% in last year’s study.
A total of 3572 Aussies were involved in the survey.
One of the people behind the report, Emeritus Professor Andrew Markus, clarified the gravity of these results to SBS News.
“That is quite a standout finding because we don’t normally find that level of shift on a general question such as racism.”
He went on to dispel the idea that lockdowns were driving the increase in positive opinion.
“Perhaps we are all just a bit more stroppy because of Covid lockdowns and are therefore more critical about inequities such as racism.
“Though that doesn’t explain why Western Australia, which hasn’t been in lockdown, also saw a sharp rise in concerns about racism.”
Aside from attitudes towards racism improving, public opinion on immigration also saw a welcome increase.
86% of people said they agreed with the prompt “immigrants are generally good for Australia’s economy”. Before the pandemic in 2019, only 76% of participants thought favourably of immigrant contributions to the economy.
The results come as the Federal Government last week announced that 200k international arrivals consisting of students, skilled migrants and refugees would be permitted entry into the country from December.
It’s no secret that Australia has faced a critical labour shortage since the borders shut in early 2020 – so an uptick in positive attitudes towards more pairs of helping hands makes a fair bit of sense.
Despite the good vibes this report suggests, there are a few things to be conscious of, especially regarding attitudes towards immigration.
The results seem to be a very subtle way of Australia confirming, “immigrants are welcome … but only if they make us money.”
I reckon today, let’s just take the win – but for those playing along at home, there’s always more work to be done.
