Australians' Attitudes toward Culturally Similar and Culturally Dissimilar Migrants

The objective of this chapter is to examine some of the factors that are associated with Australians' attitudes toward culturally similar and culturally dissimilar migrants, including those who are humanitarian migrants (i.e., asylum seekers and refugees). To do this, we set the scene in which migration occurs by briefly discussing the history of immigration to Australia and recent local events that may have influenced Australians' attitudes toward migrants. We then review past Australian research that indicates that Australians' attitudes toward migrants from different cultural backgrounds (e.g., migrants from the Middle East) or with different skills (e.g., well-educated migrants) are not the same and that these are likely predicted by individual difference factors. Finally, we discuss the results of our recent study that examined whether Australians form different discrete homogeneous groups (i.e., latent classes), based on their attitudes toward these migrant groups and the factors associated with latent class membership.