Elegant Distractions

James C. Bennett quotes an article from The Australian that shows the Lebanese community where the riots took place had a significantly lower assimilation rate than other communities.

Studies by Monash University's Bob Birrell of the most revealing test of immigrant integration, the marriage rate, showed that by the end of the '90s less than 10 per cent of second-generation marriages of people of European descent were to someone from their parents' country. Much the same was true of immigrants from south and east Asia. Only 6 per cent of Indians married within their ethnic group, as did only 18 per cent of Chinese. In short, most immigrants, whatever their race, married Australians of other nationalities.

However, for the Lebanese, of whom most of marriageable age were Muslims, these figures were reversed. No less than 74 per cent of Lebanese brides and 61 per cent of Lebanese grooms married within their own ethnic group. Moreover, these figures had increased since the early '90s, when they were about six percentage points lower. This pattern may have fulfilled the community-building objective sought by Lebanese political and religious leaders, but it has been a disaster for their constituents' relationship with the rest of Australia.

The effectivenss of cultural assimilation was proven here in the US over the course of a couple centuries, so of course certain people feel it must be stopped at all costs. The same people who think the US (and the entire Anglosphere) must be stopped to make way for the People's Paradise (or the new Caliphate, take your pick).

Via Insy