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In 1901 most Australians were loyal, white subjects of the British Empire with direct connections to Britain. Within a hundred years, following an unparalleled immigration program, its population was one of the most diverse on earth. No other country has achieved such radical social and demographic change in so short a time. Destination Australia tells the story of this extraordinary transformation. Against the odds, this change has caused minimal social disruption and tension. While immigration has generated some political and social anxieties, Australia has maintained a stable democracy and a coherent social fabric. One of the impressive achievements of the book is in explaining why this might be so.

A range of studies have found that immigrants generally start out using different travel modes but over time they ‘assimilate’ toward adopting similar travel modes to the general population. These studies tend to focus on ‘when’ and ‘if’ travel assimilation occurs, with some studies using socioeconomic factors to explain ‘why’ this occurs. But few studies have explored the role of culture, attitudes and other ‘soft’ factors in shaping the process of travel assimilation among immigrants. In Australia, South Asians have been the largest and fastest growing immigrant group, and as skilled migrants they face few ‘hard’ barriers to car use. The aim of this paper is to explore the interaction between cultural influences, attitudes and initial travel experiences upon arrival in Australia on long-term travel assimilation amongst South Asian immigrants. Qualitative interviews with 20 South Asian immigrants were used to identify a range of cultural and psychosocial factors, such as perceptions towards travel modes and gender-based cultural norms. Attitudes and behaviours evolve during their early years in Australia, beginning with a ‘honeymoon period’ – a phase where all travel modes are seen as positive – before car use begins to dominate. The findings have implications for how we understand the interactions between attitudes, cultural practice and travel behaviour and how they evolve over time. They also imply that policymakers have only a narrow window of time to encourage sustainable transport among South Asian immigrants before the travel ‘honeymoon period’ wears off.

Background Despite growing international migration and documented ethnic differences in overweight and obesity in developed countries, no research has described the epidemiology of immigrant overweight and obesity at a national level in Australia, a country where immigrants comprise 28.1 % of the population. The aim of this study was to examine ethnic differences in body mass index (BMI) and overweight/obesity in Australia and the influence of acculturation on bodyweight among Australian immigrants. Methods Data from the national Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey were used to examine mean BMI and odds of overweight/obesity comparing immigrants ( n  = 2 997) with Australian born ( n  = 13 047). Among immigrants, acculturation differences were examined by length of residence in Australia and age at migration. Data were modelled in a staged approach using multilevel linear and logistic regression, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables. Results Relative to Australian born, men from North Africa/Middle East and Oceania regions had significantly higher BMIs, and men from North West Europe, North East Asia and Southern and Central Asia had significantly lower BMIs. Among women, the majority of foreign born groups had significantly lower BMIs compared with Australian born. Male and female immigrants living in Australia for 15 years or more had significantly higher BMIs and increased odds of being overweight/obese respectively, compared with immigrants living in Australia for less than 5 years. Male immigrants arriving as adolescents were twice more likely to be overweight/obese and had significantly higher BMIs than immigrants who arrived as adults. Male and female immigrants who arrived as children (≤11 years) had significantly higher odds of adult overweight/obesity and BMIs. Conclusions This study provides evidence of ethnic differences in overweight and obesity in Australia with male immigrants from North Africa/Middle East and Oceania regions being particularly vulnerable. In addition, this study suggests that greater acculturation may negatively impact immigrant bodyweight and recently arrived immigrants as well as those who arrive as children or adolescents may benefit from obesity prevention intervention. Public health policy targeted at and tailored to these immigrant cohorts will assist in the multi-pronged approach required to address the obesity epidemic.

Faced with increasing flows of immigrants from countries with very different ethnic and cultural compositions, identity has become an important part of the public debate on immigration and minority ethnic group assimilation. Yet, identificational assimilation, associated with the emergence of a new social identity as ethnic immigrant groups merge with host society members while often retaining some ‘inner layer’ of heritage ancestry or background, is among the least studied of assimilation sub-processes. Like other aspects of assimilation, it is an intergenerational process, but one which occurs unevenly among immigrant groups from different cultural backgrounds. Spatially, there is an underlying assumption that those more identificationally assimilated will be less segregated from host society members. Focusing on ancestral identification, whether heritage (ethnic or cultural background) only or dual (heritage-Australian), we analyse three generations of a cross-section of ethnic immigrant groups in Sydney, Australia’s largest immigrant-receiving city. Results highlight a major identificational shift in the third generation plus the ways in which intergenerational identificational assimilation, though seemingly inexorable, progresses unevenly among ethnic immigrant groups, with results affecting their spatial assimilation.

A recurring theme in Indigenous affairs in Australia is a tension between maintenance of Indigenous culture and achievement of socio-economic ‘equity': essentially ‘self-determination' versus ‘assimilation'. Implicit in this tension is the view that attachment to traditional cultures and lifestyles is a hindrance to achieving ‘mainstream' economic goals. Using data from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, stronger attachment to traditional culture is found to be associated with enhanced outcomes across a range of socio-economic indicators. This suggests Indigenous culture should be viewed a part of the solution to Indigenous disadvantage in Australia, and not as part of the problem.

This article investigates the assimilation role of intermarriage between immigrants and natives. Intermarried immigrants earn significantly higher incomes than endogamously married immigrants, even after we take account of human capital endowments and endogeneity of intermarriage. The premium does not appear to be a reward for unobservable individual characteristics. Natives who intermarry do not receive this premium, nor do immigrants who intermarry into another ethnic group. The premium is mainly attributable to a faster speed of assimilation rather than any difference in labor‐market quality between intermarried and nonintermarried immigrants at the point of arrival.

This research note takes an occupational attainment approach to examining the economic assimilation of immigrants in Australia. This approach differs from much of the existing literature, which tends to examine economic assimilation by looking at levels of (un)employment or wages. Focusing on occupational attainment is useful, in that disadvantage in the labour market is not limited to employment status and earnings, and an individual’s occupation may provide a broader signal of their economic and social well-being. Findings indicate that, on arrival, immigrants from a non-English speaking background face significant disadvantage in occupational attainment, particularly those from Asian countries. There is also evidence to suggest that those who arrive later in life, or are from an Asian non-English speaking background, are the least likely to assimilate over time. Results are indicative of the need for policies to better integrate immigrants from more diverse cultures and societies into the Australian labour market.

01 02 As the growing diversity of societies is recognised as both an asset and a challenge, academia has been forced to re-evaluate some of its basic assumptions about migrant incorporation and social memories. However, scholars have rarely combined Migration Studies and Memory Studies to consider how perceptions of the past affect the incorporation of immigrants in their host societies. The authors in this volume merge the extensive knowledge and relevant findings produced in both fields. They demonstrate, through a series of empirical studies from Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East, how various actors have referenced diverse conceptions of their local, regional and national pasts to include and exclude immigrants from receiving societies. By focusing on how the presentation of a certain past relates to the immigration present, the book aims to examine the relationship between the politics of memory and the incorporation of immigrants. 08 02 'This is an exciting new collection which looks at the various and shifting interplays between memory and migration. It is certainly a welcome addition to historiography in this field.' - Kathy Burrell, De Montfort University, UK \"In a world where multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism have come under fire of neo-nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetorics this volume at the crossroad of memory and migration studies is most timely. Its innovative research agenda opens a fresh and much needed impulse that forces scholars to rethink the role of memory (and memory studies) in current scholarly and political discussions about the role of migrants and migration in nation states, and more generally in human societies.\" - Leo Lucassen, professor of Social History, University of Leiden. 04 02 List of Illustrations Foreword; J.Winter Notes on Contributors The Memory and Migration Nexus: An Overview; I.Glynn & J.O.Kleist PART I: MIGRANT MEMORIES Cultures of History:The New Left, South Asians, and Historical Memory in Post-war England; K.Meyers 'I am also a foreigner, but with me it's different': Polish Displaced Persons, War Memory and Ethnification in Belgium; M.Venken Using History to Relate: How Teenagers in Germany Use History to Orient Themselves Between Nationalities; J.Raasch PART II: MEMORIES IN DIVERSE SOCIETIES Caught between Two Worlds: The Europeans of Algeria in France after 1962; M.Baussant Remembering Egypt: Evangelicals, Conservatism and Immigration in America; H.B.Leaman African Asylum Seekers and the Changing Politics of Memory in Israel; M.Ram & H.Yacobi Past Migrations, Contemporary Representations and Complex Multicultures in London; M.J.Hickman , H.Crowley & N.Mai PART III: MIGRATION MEMORIES AND THE STATE Famine Commemorations and Asylum Debates in Ireland Conflated; I.Glynn Migrant Incorporation and Political Memories: Transformations of Civic and Cultural Belonging in Australia since 1949; J.O.Kleist Songs for the Nation: Migrant Pasts and Global Futures in Singapore; K.E.Y.Low Notes Index 31 02 Examines the relationship between the politics of history, memory and the incorporation of immigrants 13 02 IRIAL GLYNN is adjunct lecturer at University College Dublin, Ireland. He received his Ph.D. from the European University Institute, Florence, and has held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford and New York University. He specializes on migration history and sports history. J. OLAF KLEIST received a PhD in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He was a visiting fellow at Swinburne University of Technology and at the University of Oxford. He has published about and is interested in the politics of memory, belonging and migration, with a focus on Australia and Germany. 19 02 Brings together perspectives from Migration Studies and Memory Studies, which has rarely been done before, and focuses on the impact of memories on migration policies rather than analysing migration memories as an element of cultural politics Wide geographical coverage, including case-studies from North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia and Asia. Encompasses comparative, theoretical and empirical work and, as a result, furthers our understanding of the benefits and limitations of memory in migration debates. A significant contribution to discussions of identity politics as previously supposed homogeneous societies become increasingly pluralist Contributing authors have been selected for their high quality and originality of research in their respective fields 16 02 There is very little work that has assessed fundamental issues such as migrant identity and emotive belonging in relation to the host's society's identity construct and memory politics and includes: Fortier: MIGRANT BELONGINGS; Berghahn, 2000 (centres on small immigrant groups) Geddes & Favell (eds.): THE POLITICS OF BELONGING: MIGRANTS AND MINORITIES IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE; Ashgate/ICCR, 1999 (relegates memory to a peripheral role) There have been more general studies that mention the role a society's conception of itself has on immigrant politics eg: Noiriel: LA TYRANNIE DU NATIONALE; Calmann-Levy, 1991 King: MAKING AMERICANS; Harvard University Press, 2000 Also: Burrell & Panayi (eds.): HISTORIES AND MEMORIES: MIGRANTS AND THEIR HISTORY IN BRITAIN (tries to amalgamate the history of immigrants in Britain with migrants' own memories of the past) Hintermann & Johansson (eds.): MIGRATION AND MEMORY: REPRESENTATION OF MIGRATION IN EUROPE SINCE 1960; StudienVerlag, forthcoming 2010 (focuses on how migration has been represented in Sweden and Austria since 1960 looking at school books and museum exhibitions) Other books that may compete indirectly include: Agnew: DIASPORA, MEMORY AND IDENTITY: A SEARCH FOR HOME; University of Toronto Press, 2005 Anderson: IMAGINED COMMUNITIES: REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF NATIONALISM, 2nd ED; Verso, 1991 Baumann: CONTESTING CULTURE: DISCOURSES OF INDENTITY IN MULTI-ETHNIC LONDON; CUP, 1996 Benmayor & Skotnes: MIGRATION AND IDENTITY; OUP, 1994 THEIR HISTORY IN BRITAIN; I.B.Tauris, 2006 Hebel (ed.): TRANSNATIONAL AMERICAN MEMORIES: de Gruyter, 2009 Hobsbawm & Ranger (eds.): THE INVENTION OF TRADITION; CUP, 1992 Kuah & Davidson: AT HOME IN THE CHINESE DIASPORA: MEMORIES, IDENTITIES AND BELONGING; Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 Landsberg: PROSTHETIC MEMORY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN REMEMBRANCE IN THE AGE OF MASS CULUTRE Columbia University Press, 2004 Rothberg: MULTIDIRECTIONAL MEMORY: REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST IN THE AGE OF DECOLONIZATION; Stanford University, 2009 Walkowitz & Knauer: CONTESTED HISTORIES IN PUBLIC SPACE: MEMORY, RACE AND NATION; Duke University Press, 2009 02 02 By conversing with the main bodies of relevant literature from Migration Studies and Memory Studies, this overview highlights how analysing memories can contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of migrant incorporation. The chapters consider international case studies from Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East.