Mapping Social Cohesion the Scanlon Foundation Surveys 2015
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Mapping Social Cohesion The Scanlon Foundation surveys 2015 Professor Andrew Markus FOUN ON D L A N T I A O C N S • 10• YEARS S S Mapping Social Cohesion U R V E Y The Scanlon Foundation surveys 2015 Mapping Social Cohesion The MappingAustralia@2015Professor Andrew Markus surveySocial Cohesion The Scanlon Foundation surveys 2017 Professor Andrew Markus Professor Andrew Markus Professor Andrew Markus Copies of this report can be accessed and downloaded at scanlonfoundation.org.au/research/surveys/ and monash.edu/mapping-population ISBN: 978-0-9945960-5-5 Published 2017 This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copywrite ACT 1968, no part of it may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. Requests and inquiries converning reproduction rights should be directed to the publisher: ACJC, Faculty of Arts Monash University Building S, Level 9, Caulfield Campus 900 Dandenong Road Caulfield East Victoria 3145 Australia CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 1 SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 6 WEIGHTING OF SURVEY RESULTS .................................................................................................... 7 MODE EFFECT AND ONLINE PANELS ................................................................................................ 8 POPULATION GROWTH .................................................................................................................. 10 COUNTRY OF BIRTH ........................................................................................................................ 13 ETHNIC DIVERSITY .......................................................................................................................... 15 WHAT IS SOCIAL COHESION? ......................................................................................................... 23 THE SCANLON‐MONASH INDEX (SMI) OF SOCIAL COHESION ....................................................... 24 COMPONENTS OF THE SCANLON‐MONASH INDEX ....................................................................... 26 RANKING OF ISSUES ....................................................................................................................... 33 DEMOCRACY .................................................................................................................................. 36 IMMIGRATION ................................................................................................................................ 46 SELECTING IMMIGRANTS ............................................................................................................... 54 EXPERIENCE OF DISCRIMINATION ................................................................................................. 59 TRUST AND VOLUNTARY WORK..................................................................................................... 62 MULTICULTURALISM ...................................................................................................................... 64 GENERATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 68 REGIONS ......................................................................................................................................... 73 POLITICAL IDENTIFICATION ............................................................................................................ 81 BALANCE OF AUSTRALIAN OPINION .............................................................................................. 88 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. 91 CREDITS .......................................................................................................................................... 91 Executive summary Demographic context The Scanlon Foundation surveys have been conducted during a period of sustained population growth and The Scanlon Foundation surveys increasing cultural and ethnic diversity, as indicated by the 2006 and 2016 census findings. This report presents the findings of the tenth Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion national survey, Australia’s population has increased by almost 3.5 conducted in June‐July 2017. The report builds on the million, from 19.9 million in 2006 to 23.4 million in knowledge gained through the nine earlier Scanlon 2016. Foundation national surveys (2007, 2009‐2016) which provide, for the first time in Australian social research, In 2016 the overseas‐born totalled 6.87 million, an a series of detailed surveys on social cohesion, increase of 1.84 million since 2006. The overseas‐ immigration and population issues. Together with the born comprise 28% of the population, the highest Scanlon Foundation local area and sub‐group surveys, proportion among OECD countries with nineteen surveys with over 42,000 respondents have populations in excess of ten million. The been conducted since 2007. The project also tracks the proportion overseas‐born in Australia compares to findings of other Australian and international surveys on 20% in Canada, 13% in the United States, and 12% immigration and cultural diversity. in the United Kingdom. In addition, 21% of the Australia‐born population have one or both The 2017 national survey was conducted from 21 June parents born overseas, hence in 2016 half the to 18 July. The survey comprised 77 questions (56 population was either first or second generation substantive and 21 demographic), including eighteen Australian. questions that are used for calculation of the Scanlon‐ Monash Index of Social Cohesion. A relatively high proportion of the overseas‐born in Australia live in capital cities: 83% in 2016, The first five Scanlon Foundation surveys employed compared to 61% of all Australia‐born. randomly generated samples of households with Within the capitals, the proportion of overseas‐ landline telephones, since 2013 the survey has born is unevenly spread. In Sydney the highest employed a dual‐frame sample methodology comprising concentrations are in the western region, in both landline and mobile phone numbers. In keeping Melbourne in the west and south‐east. The extent with contemporary best practice, the survey included of concentration has increased over the last ten the views of the estimated 29% of adults who live in years. In 2006, in 11.6% of Sydney’s Local households without a landline telephone connection. Government Areas more than half the population was born overseas, in 2016 the proportion had To further understanding of the impact of mode of increased to 20%; in Melbourne, which has lower surveying on pattern of response, three self‐ levels of concentration, the relative proportions administered surveys were conducted between 2013 were 3.2% and 11.4%. and 2015. In 2017, in addition to the interviewer administered national survey, there were two Australia’s immigrants are increasingly drawn additional survey components. Versions of the national from the Asian region: in 2015‐16, 31% of migrant survey were administered using commercial online arrivals were from Southern Asia, 17% from panels which enable self‐completion of the survey: one Chinese Asia, and 10% from the United Kingdom. utilised Australia’s first probability online panel, one of a Currently the top source countries of immigrants handful of probability panels in the world, the second a are China and India. Of the overseas‐born sample drawn from a large (350,000 members) non‐ population, the proportion born in China probability panel of a type that is widely used in increased from 5% to 8% between 2006 and 2016, surveying. the Indian proportion from 3% to 7%. While the Scanlon Foundation continues to explore a Australia maintains a diverse immigration intake. range of survey methodologies, it does so with the Among the 189,770 arrivals in 2015‐16, there were knowledge that there is no perfect method for 1000 or more persons from 29 countries. conducting surveys, rather each methodology has Indicative of the growing diversity of the advantages and disadvantages. The Scanlon Foundation population, members of faith groups other than has contributed to knowledge of Australian public Christian increased from 1.1 million to 2 million opinion through its funding of large and consistently between 2006 to 2016. Over this period, those worded surveys administered to probability samples, who identify as Muslim increased from 340,400 to supplemented by experimental online surveys. It is the 604,200, Buddhist from 418,800 to 563,700, and consistent methodology of the Foundation’s national Hindu from 148,100 to 440,300. surveys that has enabled the precise tracking of public opinion over the last ten years. Mapping Social Cohesion 2017: National Report 1 Between 2013 and 2017 the Scanlon Foundation surveys Indicators of stability have asked for response to the proposition that Despite the magnitude of demographic change, the ‘multiculturalism has been good for Australia?’ Scanlon Foundation surveys find consistency in the Agreement has been consistently in the range 83%‐86%, level of acceptance of immigration and cultural disagreement between 10%‐12%. In the self‐completion diversity – and a large measure of stability across key Life in Australia