Australia’s Citizenship Minister has warned multiculturalism is failing with almost a quarter of immigrants in some areas unable to speak English.
Alan Tudge has also flagged the idea of toughening English-language tests and ensuring new arrivals show a commitment to Australia’s democratic and liberal values.
The Turnbull Government Minister said that while Australia was a successful multicultural nation, there were elements of failure when it came to integration.
Australia’s Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge has warned multiculturalism is failing with almost a quarter of immigrants in some areas unable to speak English
‘I want to sound a note of caution: Australian multiculturalism is not God-given and cannot be taken for granted,’ he will say in a speech to the Menzies Research Institute in Sydney on Wednesday night.
‘Indeed, there is emerging evidence that we are not integrating as well as what we have done in the past.
‘Moreover, there are external factors that weren’t present even a decade ago that make integration more challenging.’
Mr Tudge, a Melbourne-based Liberal MP, also referenced gang violence in his home city committed by African and Sudanese gangs in his upcoming speech given to The Australian.
He also flagged the idea of toughening English-language tests and ensuring new arrivals show a commitment to Australia’s democratic and liberal values (Muslim women in Sydney’s west)
The Greater Dandenong region, in the city’s east, has experienced a rise in violent crime.
This is an area of Melbourne where 64 per cent of the population was born overseas, figures from the 2016 Census show.
It is also an outer suburban area where 30 per cent of people spoke only English at home, with 24 per cent of immigrants not speaking English at all, compared with 19 per cent in the 2011 Census.
Mr Tudge, a Melbourne-based Liberal MP, also referenced gang violence in his home city committed by African and Sudanese gangs
The minister has used his speech to call on the Senate to pass the government’s amendments to the Citizenship Act so prospective new citizens would have to pass a more rigorous English-language test.
Labor and the Greens are opposed to the Turnbull Government’s proposal to make immigrants pass a university level English test and be quizzed on their attitudes to domestic violence, female genital mutilation and child brides.