Advertisement
For mainland Chinese migrants in Australia, adapting to new home made worse by coronavirus, racism and isolation
- A new study shows that mainland Chinese migrants flock together to certain suburbs, such as Box Hill in Melbourne, out of a sense of social solidarity
- The study warned that overt discrimination against the Chinese community could ‘create a threat to social cohesion’
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
99
Mainland Chinese immigrants in Australia have a harder time adjusting to their new environment than some of their East Asian counterparts, but any progress they have shown in closing the gap is potentially threatened by discrimination and pandemic-related racism, a new study has found.
In the wide-ranging study by the Scanlon Foundation, focused on why mainland Chinese migrants flock to certain suburbs such as Box Hill in Melbourne and aimed at gaining insight into Australia’s broader Chinese diaspora at a time of uncertainty from the coronavirus pandemic and mounting diplomatic tension with Beijing, the research group found that language barriers and difficulties in breaking into existing social circles in Australian society were some of the bigger reasons preventing mainland Chinese migrants, particularly older ones, from quickly adapting.
In particular, mainland Chinese migrants have a harder time integrating than their more “Westernised” Chinese counterparts from places such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
That process may have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought about “overt discrimination against members of the Chinese community”, leading to “the potential to create a threat to social cohesion”, said the study, “Melbourne’s New East: What change in one Australian Chinese community says about the nation’s future”, authored by Julie Szego.
Chinese migrants in general, and the older generation in particular, “feel they’re not welcome and feel isolated as a group”, although the younger generation fared better, the study said.
Advertisement