One of the biggest fears among those who have remained sceptical about our policy of multiculturalism is that ethnic groups would become ghetto-ised, clinging to the identity the values, customs, beliefs of their birthplace in ways that would stifle the development of any sense of being Australian. As a way of perpetuating such cultural insulation, so the argument runs, the children of immigrants would tend to marry partners from the same ethnic group as their own. It looks as if we can put that fear right out of our minds. When young people in Australia fall in love, wherever their parents came from, they can leap the ethnic barrier in a single bound. As you might expect, there are some significant differences between birthplace groups and, no doubt, religious groups on this question.
Intermarriage is least likely to occur among the offspring of immigrants from Lebanon and Greece.
Seventy per cent of brides with Lebanese parents are still choosing Lebanese husbands, and 55 per cent of brides with Greek parents marry Greek men. But in the case of every other ethnic group, a clear majority of the sons and daughters of immigrants marry people from a different birthplace group. Even among Italians, long considered an ethnic group with culturally exclusive tendencies, the proportion of immigrants' children marrying Italian partners has fallen to 40 per cent. By the way, a similar picture is emerging for marriages involving Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. When immigrants' children marry outside their birthplace group, there's a roughly equal split between those who choose long-time Australian partners and those who choose partners from some other ethnic group.