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Re: "Parallel societies"

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On 27/06/26 16:00, occam wrote:

> I came across this term 'parallel society' to describe the US term
> 'ghetto' while watching a documentary about Denmark. Apparently the
> term was coined in the 1990s by sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer, hence
> it's a euphemism with European origins, for a change.
>
> According to Wiki:
>
> "Denmark has used the term to define social housing estates where at
> least half the residents are from "non-Western" countries, as well
> as other factors such as high crime and unemployment rates."

It's more than just a euphemism. The word "ghetto" carries with it an
undertone of "this problem will always be with us". A new term does open
up the possibility of asking what we can do about the problem.

In the case of migrant communities, there's a definite difference
between cultures that work hard to succeed and those that don't. In
Australia the ethnic Chinese stand out. They work hard, they teach their
children to work hard, the children are high achievers at school, and
within one generation they have moved up socially. Some other
communities shrink within their own group, limit their interaction with
the wider community, and discourage their children from joining that
community. Religion is part of the reason for this, but it can't be the
whole reason.

In this country we're very conscious of the backwards status of
indigenous people. They suffer from poor health, poor education,
poverty, domestic violence, high rates of imprisonment, and so on. The
main reason is that all these factors are interlinked. Poverty leads to
poor education, which leads to unemployment, more poverty, crime, etc.
It's a vicious cycle. Attempts to break the cycle have mostly failed.
But at least there's recognition that there is a problem, which gives
hope for the future.

-- 
Peter Moylan       peter@pmoylan.org    http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

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"Parallel societies" occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-06-27 08:00 +0200
  Re: "Parallel societies" Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-28 11:07 +1000
    Re: "Parallel societies" Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-28 06:11 +0100
      Re: "Parallel societies" Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-06-28 10:42 +0200
      Re: "Parallel societies" nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-06-28 11:01 +0200
      Re: "Parallel societies" Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-28 21:08 +1000
        Re: "Parallel societies" occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-06-28 13:41 +0200
          Re: "Parallel societies" Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-06-29 10:14 +1000
            Re: "Parallel societies" wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) - 2026-06-29 00:55 +0000
            Re: "Parallel societies" athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-29 15:04 +0000
        Re: "Parallel societies" Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-28 14:46 +0100
    Re: "Parallel societies" Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-06-28 10:40 +0200
      Re: "Parallel societies" liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) - 2026-06-28 15:32 +0100
        Re: "Parallel societies" Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-06-28 17:24 +0200

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