Cross cultural relationships
Around 52 per cent of marriages in Australia are between couples from different cultural backgrounds. Such marriages can sometimes arouse suspicion from racist acquaintances that judge the marriage as for visa or economic purposes, regardless of whether the husband and wife are Australian residents. This was the reaction from certain acquaintances when ANU PhD student Monika Doxey, who is Indonesian, announced her marriage to Robert, an Australian, despite Monika having lived half her life in Australia and studying with Robert at school. Dr. Kathryn Robinson, Chief Investigator of the ANU’s Inter-marriage Project says that racism is often targeted at spouses from poorer nations who marry someone from a richer nation. Stephanie Raison reports.