Finding Soho

Against a backdrop of increasing migration from Asia to Australia, the experience of Asian visitors and immigrants coming into Australia has changed over time; rather than disorientation, Asian migrants coming to Australia may experience a relatively more comfortable ‘settling in’. Drawing on existing networks and connections with established Australian residents (occasionally facilitated by family networks back home), new visitors and migrants can foster a sense of community fairly quickly and use support networks to gather information, manage the logistics of travel or settlement and participate in social events. The traditional pressures that attend physical relocation may thus feel less urgent and onerous, and the affective impacts of cultural adjustment may be less significant. Communities of settled migrants can provide a potentially helpful safety net or point of reference for newly arrived migrants, making these people feel like a part of an existing community and thus helping ...

It suddenly occurred to me yesterday how normal I find the experience of living among people from so many different cultures and countries. I went to a Greek restaurant and knew exactly what to order and how to pronounce it correctly. I did it almost unconsciously and the transaction was over quite quickly because I was so precise. (I became conscious of this because the customer before me was asking about every item and still trying to figure out what to order.) But later on, I thought to myself, how did I become this person who knows all this information? Because I didn't grow up in this setting. But now the experience is so familiar and so ingrained, I can't imagine life otherwise. The person that I was before would look upon me now and find it odd that I am familiar with the cultures, objects and tastes of so many different ethnicities and nationalities. But to the person that I am now, that is ordinary. There are so many ways in which I and so many others who have experien...