Crickey. There sure are a lot of desis down under.
Indians have emerged as the fastest-growing group of migrants entering Australia. They are now the third-largest immigrant group behind the British and New Zealanders. The Indians bring with them the expertise that Australia’s booming economy desperately needs, amid a chronic skills shortage. [link]
In fact, 10% of new settlers to Australia are of Indian origin. Though, last we checked, the Desi-American community is growing, I hardly think the growth is comparable.
“The word has got out that Australia’s looking for well-educated migrants with good English, and Indians fit that. So the question is whether those who want to leave India want to come to Australia or the United States or Britain or Canada,” said [former government advisor] Henderson…Trade unions have complained that importing so many foreign workers does not address the root causes of Australia’s skills shortage.Social isolation and discrimination at work can pose problems. But for most newcomers the migration experience is a positive one. [link]
One of the interesting things that I hear about South/Asians in Australia are the high number of Asian-Australians that are in elected office. The reason for such interest in civic engagement? A large part would have to be in that in Australia, they have mandatory voting — including fines if you don’t vote.
Voter Registration is mandatory for all citizens 18 years of age or above. An individual has 8 weeks after turning 18 to register. Similarly, if a change of address causes an individual to move to another electorate (Electoral Division) they are legally obliged to notify the Electoral Commission within 8 weeks…The one registration covers Federal, State and Local voter registration. In Australia it is a legal offence to fail to vote (or at the very least, attend a polling station and have one’s name crossed off the roll) at any Federal or State election, punishable by a fine. [link]
When you have mandatory voting, issues around disenfranchisement no longer revolve around registration and getting to the polls, but around other issues. Though the article states the reason for the large immigrant influx desi population is to fill skill shortage spots, I would imagine that another large reason is due to the ease with which desis get involved into the fabric of civic life. I’ve never been though, so if we have any South Asian Australian readers, I’d love to hear about your experience. With both mandatory voting and an influx of desis in Australia, potentially, desis will be a politicized population to reckon with down under in the near future. Is mandatory voting America’s solution?
Maybe mandatory voting would be a good idea for the US?
Mandatory voting is US will be against Freedom. Better idea is to have one lucky voter win $10 Million dollars.
I’m against mandatory voting for several reasons. First, I generally have issues with mandatory anything that doesn’t involve public health and safety. I just think that given the right circumstances, it wouldn’t be too big a leap to go from mandatory voting to mandatory voting for a given individual/party. Second, I don’t think it will solve the problem of the political and social apathy that pervades the United States. To me, an uneducated vote is not worth much more than a non-existent vote. I don’t believe that making a vote mandatory will lead to people educating themselves about the candidates before making a decision. Finally, to quote my favorite show, “decisions are made by those that show up.” Unless there’s a specific reason for being disenfranchised, such as poverty, gender, or race, I don’t believe in helping people who don’t take the time to show up and have their voice heard. That may sound harsh, but I don’t suffer ignorance and apathy particularly well.
This is a role Indians have been fulfilling all over the world for generations. It’s nice to know that Australia has also caught on to what the subcontinent has to offer.
Better idea is to have one lucky voter win $10 Million dollars.
Beautiful!
Paging Razib: Are lottery buyers from likely to vote for Democrats or Republicans?
Are lottery buyers from likely to vote for Democrats or Republicans
how the f**k am i supposed to know? i would bet democrat though…one of the arguments against lotteries is that they are regressive & stupid poor people tend to be much more motivated by them. it helps schools, but $10 is a lot more for someone making $1500 a month than $5000. since democrats have the stupidest and most intelligent voters, i figure it would boost their numbers.
ROMFLMAO
Because. You just DO.
For those of us who are blog-speak impaired, what does this mean?
btw, i apologize for the use of the word “stupid.” seems harsher than i meant it. just that buying lottery tickets isn’t really “rational,” and my understanding is that lottery ticket binges are too common among those who can least afford it. someone who invests money in the stock market, or spent 8 years in college & med school to make their $$$, are less likely to get incredibly motivated because there is a lottery for big bux on the table because they are the types more likely to do the “math” in terms of likelihood for various options. it seems dumb to get motivated to vote cuz of a lottery…but hey, non-dumb peopel do dumb things.
though still hold that the IQ distributio of democrats is bimodal (see alamanc of american politics for what i am talking about).
2004 prez exit poll. control-f “VOTE BY EDUCATION,” you’ll what i mean.
ROMFLMAO – Rolling On the Floor Laughing My Ass Off
Hi there, as indicated by my name I’m a Sri Lankan born and raised in New Zealand. While I can’t speak for the Australian situation, in a lot of ways, it is quite similar to NZ. Indians have been in NZ and have been visible as an ethnic group in NZ for a long time (remembering that NZ is quite a young country with a small population). The 1916 census was the first to list Indians as a separate ethnic group, with 181 people listed as full or part ‘Hindu’. Despite the small numbers, there was a strong racist backlash towards them. In the mid 1920s a small group of Indian potato growers moved into an area known for its market gardens, the local farmers formed the “White New Zealand League” whose propoganda targetting Indian and Chinese was widespread and very damaging. However, in contrast to the Chinese and some other groups, Indians have generally found it easier to be admitted to NZ due to English ability and perceived similarities due to British colonisation. Btw, most of this info is taken from an excellent collection of political cartoons which depict Chinese and Indians in NZ called “Aliens at my table – asians as new zealanders see them” put together by Manying Ip and Nigel Murphy. Hope this is helpful.
I’ve been browsing this blog for ages but this is the first time I’ve commented… I moved to Australia six years ago from India with my family and am at uni now so I think I have a fair understanding of the Indian migration boom. There has been a very visible influx of Indians, especially students, and there is an entire street in Paramatta in Western Sydney that has become a sort of Indian ghetto, with restaurants, sari shops and Bollywood rentals… As for whether Indians are a highly visible community due to mandatory voting… I’m not very knowledgeable and though there are some Indians at the local level, I don’t think it is a substantial proportion as of yet.. just from anecdotal experience most Indians vote Labor and there was a Unity Party of some sort last elections which was composed of Asian migrants but it did not do that well. The Indian community is unfortunately not as cohesive as the Chinese for instance that seem to have a parallel infrastructure of sorts as in a Chinese shopping centres and suburban strips- however this could be related as stated above to the fact that most Indians can assimilate more easily in wider society due to their English speaking skills. Additionally the Indian commmunity here is as segregated as back home: the same class and to a lesser extent regional divisions persist and in a way my experience here is representative only of a minute proportion of migrants.
Frankly, I don’t want to be part of, or part of building, some ethnic voting bloc. Spew. Can’t there be better ways to “cohere” “our” “community” (and lots of us didn’t come here from India, by the way)? I see the whole ethnic community-building project as highly suspect, particularly given some of the utterly abject conservatives who are claiming to “lead” parts of the “community” with which I have had dealings, and given the government they’re busy sucking up to. And incidentally, I don’t think we can be so confident that Indians/diaspora-Indians vote Labor. I know plenty who love the Liberals because they think Howard made their house prices double overnight, and who find that he plays to their prejudices vis-a-vis the Muslim other. And given the current Beazley-bashing of workers from “Bombay, Beijing and Beirut” on 457 temporary visas, I don’t think Labor can expect to naturally attract ethnic votes. I have also witnessed community leaders/native informants trying to shore up their “community leader” status by contrasting us hard-working Indians/diaspora-origin-Indians with those bad, bad Muslims (see those Lebanese kids, they never study, etc). These are the politics of multiculturalism in 21st-century Australia, and to my mind the entire scene is bogus. What’s the alternative? Sadly, it seems to be the politics of festivals, or, double-spew, Miss India-Australia contests sponsored by the local Indian grocery shop.
I’m perfectly comfortable with mandatory voting, by the way. Having to make a choice means having to engage on some level with political issues, without needing some bloc (ethnic or otherwise) to exhort you into action. Those who don’t want to vote can donkey vote anyway, and I think that’s the most common objection: when forced to vote, how do you make a choice when both major parties are so bankrupt? I solve that by voting for the Greens, and by having a non-ballot-box-centric view of politics.
Interesting point- the US government would be all topsy turvy in terms of campaigning then…Personally, I’m a fan too- I think that it would break tdown the major voting issues. And like you said- get rid of a need to mobilize voters “ethnically.”
Thanks for sharing Arlakisha and Lankan Kiwi….very inciteful to see how the immigration experience is more similar to that in the UK than in the US….(i.e. moving to ethnic enclaves, instead of “assimilation in the suburbs”)
taz, having said that though, there are a couple of models for ethnic-bloc politics here (although, as far as I can sniff out, there is no “South Asian” identity moving politics in any way here, nor is the desi diaspora considered “Asian” in the Australian racial schema). Anyway, the most notorious model is colloquially known as “ethnic branch stacking”. This is perceived as a Labor Party problem, but it happens in Liberal branches too. Basically the local member has contacts with some ethnic community leader and needs his voting bloc, and the community leader needs to be able to present himself as having the ear of government to consolidate his (rarely her) position, so suddenly 150 members of that community go and join the local party branch and begin voting in it, all the same way, of course. Then there is the non-government ethnic association or committee, which is starved of federal government funding if it’s any good, or which gets that funding if it’s willing to prove that its members are model migrants. Then there is the religious association or committee, which is generally riven by all the usual divisions over questions of doctrine, practice and ethnicity.
Given our situation, I’ve been reading the US election posts on Sepia Mutiny with some bemusement.
Wonder where you got the idea about a large number of Desis in local government in Australia. Well, I live in Melbourne. Cant say that I have seen more than a handful. Halwa may be able to elucidate.
Howard with his dog whistling is not much better than Labour. Remember for 65 years Australia had a white only policy driven primarily by Labor.
Remember, not too many OECD countries have race riots – Australia (Sydney) had one last year.
In the mid 90’s we had Pauline Hanson. Today many white aussies worry about the brown invasion (albeit in private).
Mate: it is Crikey 🙂
on another parameter – I must say that australia is rather conservative. I have a hard time getting a root. Sheilas in USA and Europe were not so hard to get into 😉 – pun intended.
desi aussie, sorry, I haven’t heard of any South Asians in local government either. Ethnic councillors and state MPs pop on TV from time to time, but I don’t remember noticing any desi types.
On getting a root, I don’t know what to suggest. Maybe it’s a Melbourne thing?
maybe sydney is easier. have not tried as yet. but brizzie and adelaide are equally hard though.
Well, unfortunately, I have not seen any MPs at the State or Federal level here in Australia, but many of the State Governments are wooing desis like anything. Atleast this is what I can see in SA. We have rechristened the University of South Australia campus as Mawson Lakes as “little india”…although I must say that the students we get here are of two types; very brilliant, and very dumb (sorry for the generalisation there). Moreover, apart from students, Australia is wooing the Indian industries as well….esp after Infy, Wipro and Satyam opened their offices in the eastern states. It may not mean much to those in America…but hell, having Indian MNC’s means a lot to us “convicts”….Also, Aus is home to many wonderful locations for films as well, Dil Chaatha Hai, Salaam Namaste, Soldier….and now recently, South Australia is on the map with Harry Baweja’s “Love Story 2050” starring Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra. I have been living in Australia for 12 years now, after my parents moved here, and I can tell you, migrating in 2006, is a HELL of a lot more easier than it was migrating in 1994. The amount of “desi” shops is amazing…hell I can walk for 5 mins and “run into” a desi, whereas 12 years ago, the “time” was around an hour (i don’t know what i meant by that but hopefully u do)
@desi aussie, define by what u mean “but brizze and adelaide equally hard though”. What are your parameters for “hard”??
NZ’s part of down under too…
we’ve got a Fijian Indian Governor General but only one desi Member of Parliament, Ashraf Choudry. And he got in a whole lot of shite with his community here because he’s Muslim and declined to vote on the Prostitution Legalisation Bill. Turns out it was passed by a majority of 1… I think the guy’s an ass because he told my mate who organised an Immigrant Identity Forum that we all have to wait 50 years till we stop getting treated like crap.
Aww, someone beat me to it! Maybe Razib you have some critical data analysis you could throw on our dumbass Southern hemisphere minds. I know you have a million jobs and 3 blogs and a relationship, but come on, pleeeeeaaase. I promise I won’t be LMAO. I might bow down in praise, though.
I don’t think you blame that on conserativeness, mate.
Also:
LANKAN KIWI, do you live in Auckland? I’ve got lotsa Lankan mates and at the risk of sounding stalkerish…I might know you! Anyways I’m at Auckland uni. Just wondering if you read Yellow Peril on Public Address it’s writer Tze Ming Mok’s book. The Manying Ip book’s really good, Mok’s a good young Asian voice, her 2004 Landfall winner essay ‘Race You There’ is a great read too.
*sorry Yellow Peril is a blog
Most Desis in Australia are either Sri Lankan or Fiji Indian. There are very few “Indian Indians”, Pakistanis are almost non-existent.
Mandatory voting doesn’t mean that you have to vote. You can go and get your name crossed off, just don’t put the paper in the ballot.
Actually Desis in Australia come from all over the Asian, Pacific and African diaspora, and this includes Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The current Desi boom referred to in the original post has meant there are now heaps more “Indian Indians” (although there always were numbers of these people), and actually more Pakistanis are coming using the same migration route: overseas study and/or skilled migration.
tashie :
getting a root in USA (east coast) / Europe (northern / southern / central and eastern) has never been an issue. Neither in India.
Not easy in Oz. dont know what else to attribute it to besides conservativeness. any insight is welcome.
Prasanna: Parameter for hard – getting the first date. Gotta really sell myself. Overcome the initial barrier of reluctance. Even chatting up a chick in a bar seems to result in no action 🙂 . Never had that issue in other parts of the world. Maybe it is easier for you coz you been around for a long time.
on second thoughts maybe i am just getting older or more picky !!!!!!
Well, I dunno about Aus, but here in NZ the quote for hot brown boys has already been filled by:
Polynesians (mmm mmm) South Africans Maori (mostly mixed with European and anyone knows mixed race people are hotter)
…so Indian guys are seen as pervy nerds. They go out in big packs in town and stare and weird out everyone. Maybe desis are seen as more exotic in those other places, here there’s a big distinction b/w the girls who are seen as hot and the guys who are seen as RANK.
*quota not quote.
Oooh and yes also I fully agree with the ghetto-isation thing. In NZ it’s not just in one ghetto, most immigrants actually congregate in one city (Auckland, which at 1.3 million is the biggest in NZ). I spent most of my childhood in Napier where everyone thought I was ‘the little girl from the dairy (corner shop)’ because besides the family that owned the dairy there was my family and that was it.
When I moved to Auckland I noticed the ghetto-ness big time, and it works with all communities even in wealthier areas. Here the low income areas are populated by Fijian Indians, the mid by Indian Indians and the high income areas by African Indians, and all communities are like that too – Chinese, South African, Polynesian. I had to de-assimilate myself to even begin talking to some Indians who live in Aucks because if they don’t step out of their neighbourhood they’ve pretty much never left the old country. As someone who’s actually lived in India I think it’s weird to get people born in a western country where they shop at Indian groceries, buy Indian clothing and only know other Indians… I don’t think it’s healthy.
The “ethnic vote” is pretty underrated, in the current political climate. None of them are actively trying to appeal to recent migrants. It’s mostly on a local level that ethnic communities tend to have a say in politics, and where most parties concentrate their “ethnic affairs” energies on.
Tashie, Nah, I’m in Wellington…but totally a possibility that we’ll know people in common. Are you Lankan? Have checked out Yellow Peril. If you’re not already, you should visit aen.org.nz and get on their mailing list – really interesting posts – particularly if you’re in Auckland. Give me an email sometime fonsekshir@student.vuw.ac.nz. Take care.
Whoops…here it is, fonsekshir@student.vuw.ac.nz. Sorry I have no idea about protocol about posting. Hope I’m doing ok!