This section considers perceptions of the effects of immigration on Australian society, and the discussion is focused on the four variables: that immigrants increase crime; are good for the economy; take jobs away from other Australians, and; that they make Australia more open to new ideas and cultures. Research has addressed perceptions of rates of crime in relation to the number of immigrants in communities (Hooghe et al., 2006, 2009; Makkai & Taylor, 2009; Van Dijk, 2000). On this topic, the AES asks respondents whether they believe immigrants increase the crime rate. Again, the kind of immigrants that respondents think of is not known — nor whether they also think about the descendants of immigrants in answering the question. It is possible that in responding to the question, they may also be thinking of asylum
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seekers, who are sometimes depicted as criminals who do not obey immigration laws, or are aligned with other forms of criminality and terrorism.
The predominant view across the period 2001 to 2013 was that immigrants increase the crime rate. In 2001, 46.7 per cent of respondents thought that
immigrants increase the rate of crime, perhaps affected by the well-known terrorism and asylum-seeking events of that year including the children overboard affair (see Chapter 4, p. 104). From the mid-2000s a small decrease can be seen — see Figure 5.2 — when the view that immigrants increase crime fell to 40.8 per cent. From 2004 to 2010, an increase in the percentage of respondents who believe that immigrants increase crime can be seen: during that period the percentage of respondents who reported that immigrants increase crime rose by 2.5 per cent. This rise may be connected to well publicised accounts of racially motivated violence committed by, or directed at, immigrants during the early to mid-2000s. Most notable during this period were the Cronulla race riots of December 2005 (Poynting, 2006), and the well-publicised and lengthy trials and appeals of Lebanese-Australian gang members who were convicted of raping several Anglo-Celtic Australian women and teenage girls (Williams, 2012). From 2010 to 2013, perceptions that immigrants increase the rate of crime decreased by 3.7 per cent. This is an important finding in the context of the Reclaim Australia Movement, which during the latter years of the period 2001– 2013 sought to place emphasis, especially though public demonstrations, on immigration and supposed links between immigrants and criminality (RA, 2015).
Attitudes towards immigrants are also perhaps shaped in some measure by views about the economy (Mayda, 2006; Scheve & Slaughter, 2001). Therefore, the AES asked questions about whether immigrants are good for the economy. The findings in Figure 5.2 show that, a consistent majority of respondents, ranging from
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54.0 to 59.5 per cent, have responded that immigrants are good for the economy — see Figure 5.2.
Figure 5.2 Perceptions of the effects of immigration, AES 2001–2013
Notes: Samples sizes for AES questions reported in Appendix J. Sample sizes for additive index:
2001, N=1955; 2004, N=1709; 2007, N=1822; 2010, N=2042(W); 2013, N=3829(W).
The opinion that immigrants are not good for the economy has remained stable across the period – more detail is provided in Appendix J (Figure 8.6, p. 246), which reveals that there is less than a five percentage point variance in this view.
While immigrants are viewed as good for the economy, and though the view that immigrants are good for the economy has been consistently positive, opinions varied concerning whether immigrants take jobs away from locally-born Australians.
46.7% 40.8% 42.7% 43.3% 39.6% 54.0% 59.5% 59.1% 52.2% 56.4% 34.6% 29.9% 29.1% 34.6% 34.8% 75.4% 80.6% 77.6% 69.4% 73.0% 3.24 3.37 3.33 3.21 3.29 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013
Immigrants increase the crime rate
Immigrants are generally good for the economy
Immirgants take jobs away from people born in Australia Immigrants make Australia more open to new ideas and cultures Attitudes towards the effects of immigration (higher is more favourable)
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The dominant view, between 2001 and 2007, was that immigrants do not take jobs away from Australians (see Appendix J). However, the 2010 data reveals an increase in the percentage of respondents who expressed the view that immigrants do take jobs away from Australians, and in 2010 this became the dominant view with more than one-third of respondents agreeing that immigrants take jobs away from locally- born Australians. In 2013, the view that immigrants do not take jobs away from Australians returned to being the dominant view, even though the number of respondents who answered that immigrants take jobs away from locally-born Australians increased slightly (see Figure 5.2; full detail included at Appendix J) perhaps as a result of the decline in discussion concerning 457 work visas (a program to bring skilled migrants to Australia, see above p. 122) which had been prominent around the 2010 election (Berg, 2013a).
The results reveal that between 2007 and 2010, concern that immigrants take jobs away from Australians increased by 5.5 percentage points – possibly coinciding with perceptions that job loses had occurred owing to the global financial crisis. By 2013, the number of respondents who are unsure whether immigrants take jobs decreased to 27.6 per cent from 31.2 per cent in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage who believed immigrants do not take jobs away from Australians increased between 2010 and 2013, from 34.2 to 37.6 per cent (full detail included at Appendix J, Figure 8.7, p. 247).
Since the 1970s, immigration has changed the cultural landscape of Australia from principally comprising British and European migrants to one that now
incorporates migrants from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including people from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Seeking to address perceptions of how migrants have changed other Australians, the AES asks respondents whether they
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agree or disagree that immigrants make Australia more open to ideas and cultures. Responses to this question have been very positive: 80.6 per cent agreed in 2004 that immigrants make Australia more open; the lowest value for the period was seen in 2010 when 69.4 per cent agreed that immigrants make Australia more open.
Conversely, the percentage of respondents who believe that immigrants do not make Australia more open to ideas and cultures has been very low, never reaching 10 per cent between 2001 and 2013 (see Appendix J). Figure 5.2 also graphs the mean response for the additive scale for perceptions of the effects of immigration on Australian society on the secondary vertical axis (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, α = 0.782, n = 11,273; see also Appendix A). On a scale of one to five, the mean response value for the additive scale of the four measures described above can be seen. Taking into account the original coding of the manifest variables, a higher numeric value on this scale reveals a more positive, or favourable, view of the effects of immigration on Australian society. There was substantial variation across the period, with low points in 2001 and 2010, when the mean values were 3.24 and 3.21 respectively. The high point for the period was in 2004 when the mean value was 3.37.
The mean values of the additive scale point to favourable attitudes towards perceptions of the effects of immigration on Australian society since 2001. However, immigration faced intense scrutiny during the 2010 election, as described above (p. 122), and the mean value was lower for that year. The decline of favourable attitudes can be observed between 2004 and 2010. However, this movement towards less favourable attitudes was in the context of attitudes that were generally favourable for much of the period 2001–2013; in 2013 the mean value for attitudes towards the effects of immigration is in fact slightly higher than it was in 2001.
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