• Andrew Markus
• Faculty of Arts, Monash University

Read the full text

27 September 2011This report presents the findings of the fourth Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion Survey conducted in June–July 2011. It builds on the knowledge gained through the three earlier Scanlon Foundation surveys conducted in 2007, 2009 and 2010, providing for the first time in Australian surveying a series of detailed surveys on social cohesion and population issues.

Participants in the four national surveys total more than 8,000, with an additional 3,300 participants in the 2007 and 2009 local area surveys. A detailed questionnaire has been employed, with the 2011 survey comprising 81 questions.

The 2011 survey was conducted at a time of economic recovery, in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis whose impact in Australia was relatively minor. In June 2011 the rate of unemployment was 4.9%, one of the lowest in the industrialised world. This was also a time of declining population growth, with annual growth falling from a peak of 2.2% in 2008 to an estimated 1.5% in 2010.

In 2010 there was much public discussion of immigration levels and future population targets. The peak was reached during the campaigning for the August federal election, which produced a minority government and on‐going bitter political partisanship.

In the first half of 2011 immigration received less attention. In contrast, policy to deal with asylum seekers who reach Australia by boat at times dominated public attention and continued to be a major talking point in the period leading to and during the 2011 survey. How has this context affected Australian attitudes, and what are the implications for social cohesion?

An overview of Australian opinion is provided by the Scanlon‐Monash Index of Social Cohesion (SMI). In 2010 the SMI registered decline across all five indicators. In 2011 the broad pattern was one of stabilisation, but close to the relatively low level of the previous year; there was marginal upward movement in indicators of belonging, participation and social justice, little change in sense of worth, and decline in the indicator of acceptance and rejection.