Cosmopolitans and patriots: Australia's cultural divide and attitudes to immigration

Opposition to immigration in Australia has continued to weaken. Causes include: a strong economy, restricted access to welfare for new immigrants, less rhetoric about multiculturalism, and general ignorance about the demographic consequences. However, a strong emphasis on border control probably helps. Reformers' protests about Australia's tough asylum-seekers policy have had little effect on attitudes to boatpeople, but may have increased public confidence in legal immigration. But the pattern of decreased concern about immigration is not uniform; people in the outer suburbs of Sydney and in regional New South Wales do not share it, nor do low-skilled workers. A curious finding is that people who vote green or belong to environmental groups are more in favour of immigration than others. This probably reflects in accentuated from the strong difference between members of the educated professional classes, with their cosmopolitan outlook, and people without university degrees and their more patriotic outlook.