White Flight !

Luke  Foley is being ostracised for using the term " white flight " to describe the rebalancing of Sydney's suburbs as a new wave of settlers finds a particular suburb attractive and move there in droves.   The original inhabitants object to hearing a different language spoken in their streets  and may also find the culture, dress standards, religion and even the skin colour of those newcomers unwelcome.  They tend to sellup and move to where they are surrounded by familiar faces.

This is not new.  When the second world war ended we opened our door to the dispossessed of Europe and very quickly Sydney's inner suburbs found favour with different nationalities.   It was often difficult to hear English spoken when the linga franca was Greek or Italian and the food in the markets was decidedly different.  The original Australian residents decamped and resettled elsewhere, until the end of the Vietnam war brought another influx of new Asian Australians and Cabramatta became an Asian city.

This time the dispossessed are from the Middle East and from Syria and Iraq.  When that European wave of settlers arrived their religion was Christian and now we are experiencing a cultural change with the building of Mosques to accommodate the expansion of Islam in Australia.  We are experiencing a repeat of that old culture of the kids quickly learning English and acting as interpreters for their parents.  We should remember how the passage of time assimilated the Europeans into the Australian culture so that they have almost invisibly blended.

What is causing outrage is Foley's choice of phrase to describe the people moving because they find having a Middle Eastern migrant living next door as " white flight ".   We are very sensitive to any colour reference because of the days when this country had a clearly defined White Australia policy.   That is long gone, but the memory lingers.

Our new Middle East refugees are settling in inner west suburbs because they feel comfortable with neighbours who speak a similar language and the shops sell the type of food with which they are familiar.  This can be disconcerting to the original inhabitants because that was exactly the same reason they found that suburb appealing in the first place, and now it no longer suits their tastes.  The newcomers are reluctant to assimilate with Australians with a different culture, and the originals see no reason to change to blend with the newcomers.

The colour of a persons skin now seems to have less to do with culture rejection.  Pairings across colour lines is now common and there is the expectation that this will increase as future generations come to maturity.  The melting pot of races present in Australia seems to determine that eventually we will become a race of olive skinned people.

Far more important in deciding the suburban mix is income. House price increases are rapidly making home ownership impossible for low income earners and many newcomers fall into that category.  As wealth grows, the distribution of people of different cultures spreads across the entire suburban spectrum, but the lower priced suburbs will always be in the distant and less attractive areas.

Perhaps Luke Foley made a poor choice of words when he described the exodus of older Australians from suburbs where Middle Eastern migrants are accumulating as " white flight ".  That flight is more likely to be because of culture change and the culture mix changes rapidly in shopping style, entertainment, schooling and cuisine when the nationality of any one race starts to predominate.

We have seen it all before and it is a natural phenomenon.  It dissipates naturally as the first wave of kids reach maturity, and by the time they become grand parents total assimilation has magically happened.