Ex Dame Pansi
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Here's a feel good story that you won't see in the headlines too often: ................................................................................ .........
New apartment projects build on the success of migrants
WITHIN a radius of a few hundred metres of the imposing al-Zahra mosque and school in Sydney's ethnically diverse southwest, a frenetic pace of building activity is under way as trendy apartment blocks rise from old industrial estates.
The mosque is located in Arncliffe, 10km south of the city centre, a place settled mainly by Lebanese Muslims since the 1970s that was once feared to be an ethnic enclave of crime and unemployment.
Directly across the road from the mosque, the earthworks are under way for a 182-unit complex as cement mixers come and go from the dusty site. Down the road, three cranes work steadily to put together a huge apartment complex as though it were a Meccano set. In the next suburb, one of Sydney's biggest shopping complexes is being built.
The latest wave of Muslim migrants are getting jobs and starting successful businesses. They are buying houses, often using Islamic credit, and they are having big families. And all of this explains why shopping centres and neighbourhoods are being rapidly rebuilt as this ethnic baby boom drives growth.
Muslim neighbourhoods are being transformed by rising affluence, a result that supports the claim by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen that multiculturalism in Australia is working.
The Muslim heartlands in our major cities are thriving places -- surprisingly so. Unlike in Britain and Europe, the migrants allowed into Australia have skills that enable them to make the most of our strong economy, says Oliver Marc Hartwich from the Centre for Independent Studies.
Mr Hartwich says immigration has been more successful than in Europe because Australia has demanded more of immigrants in terms of skills, language ability and willingness to integrate.
Migrants from the Middle East are the latest wave and some may appear less willing to integrate, but they are earning good money and spending it.
David Tanana, 18, who is studying construction at TAFE, says people in his community are working mainly in trades and they are doing very well.
Asked what changed in his area while he was growing up, he says: "People are working more. They are more successful now, they have got more money. You can see the cars, the houses."
Mr Tanana's own family experience tells the story. A decade ago his family moved from a small house into a two-storey home with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. His brother works in a bank, his sister in a call centre.
Mr Tanana works part time in the industrial bakery owned by his extended family. The business turns out 7000 to 10,000 packets of Lebanese bread every day.
He plans to go into franchise building. At school, in Years 11 and 12, he completed courses in construction, occupation health and safety, and first aid.
His aunt, Hala Beydoun, has worked at the bakery for 20 years, and has seen families in the area do well. Many now own houses and they typically have four or five children, she says.
Eman Omran, who sells apartments in the complex next to the mosque, says people from trendy inner suburbs are looking to buy because it is affordable and has good transport connections. The complex, which will feature a pool and a gym, has also attracted a lot of Asian investors.
These changes do not mean that problems don't exist as people from diverse backgrounds rub up against each other. There clearly are some minorities who have little interest in mainstream Australian culture and values, and little interest in integrating.
Tensions remain in Arncliffe after youths last year vandalised the local cenotaph before Anzac Day. Police said they were looking for youths of Middle Eastern appearance, but no one was arrested.
David Clark, the general manager of Arncliffe RSL, says "an uneasy truce" between the Muslim youths and established residents remains. But a council worker who looks after the park disagrees, saying there is rarely any trouble and all of the young people in the park go there to play soccer.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/new-apartment-projects-build-on-the-success-of-migrants/story-fn59niix-1226012252948
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I can see why people would be afraid of them, they are becoming successful, just like the Italians, Greeks and Vietnamese before them.
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