migrants come to australia to seek for a better life but why some of them seem to make a little
effort to assimilate and why some of them just want to befriend from people in the same
community and rather deal with people who speak their own language even though they speak english
well hi everyone my name is Hendra i was born and grew up in jakarta before coming to australia
i hope this video will share some lights why some migrants still want to live in their own
community bubble even though they've been living in Australia for years and what i would do
differently in my early days to better assimilate in these new countries of course it's only based
on my personal experience and observation in sydney australia and i don't speak for all
migrants if you migrate from english-speaking country like UK US or Canada then you probably
have an easier time to make australia home imagine moving to new country without existing social ties
the air language culture everything is different yeah i did mention the air because that's the
first thing that i noticed when i set my foot for the first time in sydney australia
this feels much fresher compared to Jakarta as much as i was excited to come to new country
at that time also seek a sense of familiarity something that makes me feel grounded and one
way to achieve that is of course to live in a suburb where people of similar background of me
of mine live indonesians might like to live in Kingsford chinese might like to live in Hurstville
Indian or Sri lankan Seven Hills Briits or Americans would love to live in Manly
probably that sort of community is like a piece of home on foreign land we can ask things like
how long you been in Australia where is your hometown did you come here on your own or
with your family if they have kids we can go about raising kids in two different culture
or where to get nice Indonesian food and so forth whereas with non-indonesian i would just stick
with the boring lines like how are you what do you do for living or we can chat about the weather
i learned it the hard way that some question that we indonesians are of concern might sound
intrusive in some culture examples years ago i heard from someone else that my friend's death
is sick and he's Australian born by the way so on the next day i asked him hey i heard that your
dad is not feeling well how is it going now he was like what i thought i was being nice by asking but
apparently that sort of question is too private if you are not a close friend or at least i need
to hear it from him first before asking secondly some migrants feel that there are cultures that
are completely incompatible with their belief so by living in their own community they're hoping
that they can insulate themselves against it this is especially true if they come from conservative
background or countries take sex before marriage or same-sex marriage for example here in Australia
or some major western countries as long as both of you consent you are 18 years old and you do it
safely then you are free to do so here people see it as an expression of individual freedom
but back home they see it as a violation of social and religious norm so if i could turn back time
what i would do differently well probably i would hang out more with the locals to find
out about the social norms and i will make stupid embarrassing mistakes earlier rather than later
and practice my English as priority i believe that those are the basic duties of the first generation
of migrants it opens up opportunities and make people life around me easier also i believe
that if we want to be accepted for who we are then we should extend the same to the people in
the new home that we live in. Sure, maintain cultural identity by all means that's the beautiful thing
about living in multicultural society you can be who you are as long as you don't break the laws
but every now and then have some vegemite for breakfast see for aussies and non-indonesian
out there you can try Mie Sedaap or Indomie sometimes that's it from me guys if you have any questions
or comments please do leave them below and if you enjoy this video or learn something
new please give it a like and subscribe i really appreciate that i'll see you next time
bye