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 In australia, migrants less likely to volunteer says researchSydney, Australia: Migrants from non-English speaking state are less probably to be military volunteer than Australian-born people or migrants from English-speaking nations, a new study shows. Ethnically diverse neighbourhoods have lower degree of volunteering - even among their Australian-born residents. The study, by Ernest Healy, senior research chap at the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, challenges the impression that ethnic diversity leads to a stronger, more cohesive society. "When you create societies from mixed backgrounds it may not lead to overt force … but to something scarier, a backdown from the civic domain," Dr Healy said, "a feeling of less connection." Using degree of volunteering as an index of sociable cohesion, the study shows that suburbia with a high grade of ethnic diversity have markedly lower rates of volunteering than more homogenous localities. The study, based on 2006 nose count data for Melbourne, shows migrants from non-English speaking state are less probably to be military volunteer than Australian-born or people from English-speaking countries, even when their income and age are similar. Length of abode in Commonwealth of Australia makes little difference, and nor does citizenship, but English language proficiency has a small impact. About 18 per cent of Australian-born middle-income wage earner aged 25-64 were military volunteer, for illustration, but only 13 per cent of those from non-English speaking state. But in ethnically diverse areas, both the Australian-born residents and the migrants from non-English speaking state are less probably to military volunteer than their opposite number in the more homogenous neighbourhoods. Dr Healy said the consequence were probably to be similar for Sydney. He said it would be wrong to conclude migrants from non-English speaking state were unfriendly and uncaring and less altruistic than Australian-born people. It was probably their selflessness was directed to friends, families and neighbor, not through organised civic, sporting, and social welfare organisations. However, altruism directed through formal groups represented a "commitment to the broader social good". The findings appear to support research by Robert Puttnam, of Harvard University, that ethnic diversity can hasten a withdrawal from "collective life". Dr Healy said the assumption multiculturalism would automatically lead to strong cohesive communities without government assistance may have been naive. More Volunteer Abroad News |