Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug
I would argue that Australia skews closer to the Melting Pot construct than does Canada so economic and family connections to Asia aren't as influential as they would be in Canada
I live in the city with perhaps the largest representation of South African expats and don't perceive any influence whatsoever. South Africa shares some British heritage, climate and economic competencies (ex. mining) with Australia, so expats blend in well by default.
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As you pointed out earlier, S.E. Asia and parts of East asia are relatively "close" to Australia (and as KT pointed out, the lack of any major timezone changes helps).
Just to help out here - in painting a picture of equivalent travel distances.
Melbourne to Denpasar/Jakarta/Singapore/KL/Bangkok/HCM/Manilla/Hong Kong is in the range of 5-10 hours or the equivalent of Toronto/Montreal (anywhere on the east coast of North America, really) to Dublin/London/Paris/Frankfurt/Warsaw/Rome/Athens.
Melbourne-Singapore is basically the same as Toronto-Paris (6,025km versus 6,037km via great circle).
S.E. Asia is to us what western/central Europe is to you, just without the major jetlag. Just think pre-covid, if you had the funds to do it, it's not much of a stretch to get on a plane to Europe for a 1-2 week trip and return - that's what S.E. Asia is to us.