quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous so national pride & community involvement should be requirements?

In a word...yes.

But not really.

National pride is not so important (though I do value that in myself), but community involvement is very important in my mind.

It's not like immigrants should be at a soup shelter serving up to the homeless, , but as I said, simple stuff like giving directions to a stranger...

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lol @ the random red dots.

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Originally posted by Beat Blog In a word...yes. But not really.

You cannot do that.

quote:

Originally posted by Frenchie You cannot do that.

it's been done before, but to not-so-varied results.

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/engl...r%3D255+255+255

Montreal is in the top five of largest French-speaking cities in the world, and is one of the biggest cities in Canada (at least I think?)...hence my saying that a large proportion of people in Canada speak French.

I was assuming that Frenchie lives in Montreal.

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quote:

Originally posted by Frenchie lol @ the random red dots. You cannot do that.

I'm saying I agree in principle, but it's not that black and white. You can't force people to have national pride (then again you can't force them to be nice to strangers or learn the local language either...)

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quote:

Originally posted by Beat Blog Can't do what?! Ask people to learn the local vernacular?

You can't say "yes" and follow it with "not really".

-I live in Toronto, MTL is a big city but it doesn't mean that Canada is MOSTLY or HEAVILY French populated and I think you are now confusing yourself as to what you are talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by Frenchie You can't say "yes" and follow it with "not really". -I live in Toronto, MTL is a big city but it doesn't mean that Canada is MOSTLY or HEAVILY French populated and I think you are now confusing yourself as to what you are talking about.

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Originally posted by Domesticated That's a completely different situation since so much of Canada is French...

By that I meant that in Canada, such a high proportion of the population (not geographical area) speaks French when compared with other countries.

There is a similar situation in other countries which even have as much as 50/50 split between two languages (in that case I'd expect migrants to learn one of the two), but let's not forget that this thread was about Australia.

I can't find any statistics on the ABS website, but something like 98% of our population speaks English as a first language...

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quote:

Originally posted by Beat Blog I can't find any statistics on the ABS website, but something like 98% of our population speaks English as a first language...

sounds like you could use some diversity.

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous sounds like you could use some diversity.

You obviously know nothing of Australia.

We are extremely culturally diverse, but a majority of migrants tend to be assimilated into the community within a generation or so.

Over here we have masses of people with Greek, Italian and Chinese backgrounds (i.e parents or grandparents), and there are more arriving every day. In the past five years our African-descent population has also increased massively and shows no signs of slowing down.

I for one welcome migrants. Without them we wouldn't have Thai, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Mexican and all the other foods I love. Perhaps in twenty years we will have Sudanese, Ethiopian etc cuisine too.

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quote:

Originally posted by Beat Blog Perhaps in twenty years we will have Sudanese, Ethiopian etc cuisine too.

I thought they were supposed to assimilate.

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Originally posted by Beat Blog You obviously know nothing of Australia.

Do you? I mean do you really?

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous I thought they were supposed to assimilate.

Verb

* S: (v) absorb, assimilate, ingest, take in (take up mentally) "he absorbed the knowledge or beliefs of his tribe"
* S: (v) assimilate (become similar to one's environment) "Immigrants often want to assimilate quickly"
* S: (v) assimilate (make similar) "This country assimilates immigrants very quickly"
* S: (v) assimilate, imbibe (take (gas, light or heat) into a solution)
* S: (v) assimilate (become similar in sound) "The nasal assimilates to the following consonant"


http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=assimilate

Just because someone's been assimilated, it doesn't mean they don't still retain their own cultural identity, while being part of their new one.

I'm not saying migrants should drop everything they knew and say "I live in a new country now, I should pretend I've lived here all my life". All I'm saying is that they should learn the language, and hence consummate their citizenship, just like you consummate a catholic marriage with sex (that was a joke, morons).

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