ian wrote on Mar 24
th, 2016 at 5:25pm:
Depends on your definition of success. Some would argue that the US being much more multicultural than Australia is much more successful than Australia.
Turnbull’s talking about integration. Given the US’s difficulty integrating the descendants of its slaves, I’d say we’re a tad better.
Multiculturalism is based on the US immigration policies of the early 20th century. The Statue of Liberty reads, "gives us your poor, your tired.and huddled masses, yearning to breathe free".
The US has been most successful integrating Irish, Poles, Russians and Italians, despite a few teething problems with organised crime. These groups were imported for precisely this reason - they broke the unions and provided cheap labour.
Australia, on the other hand, used union labour to develop. Its immigrants were used to compliment Australian workers, not undercut them. The ALP was successful in resisting mass immigration until the 1960s for this very reason.
The war changed things. The ALP changed tack, but it took the Libs to impliment multiculturalism.