Isolation without extended family

[sehrish2cherish]

Hi everybody!
I'm a student in my final year at high school in Sydney-Australia and for one of my subjects i'm doing an independant research project and i would like your views on this issue, my hypothesis is:

Indian families living in Australia feel isolated without their extended family

If you could give me your views and tell me if you have any family members overseas and how you feel without them and when do they visit you?

Thanks a lot! :)

[miqsh]

yes, one feels isolated, because Australia seems to be all on its own. like there is a big space between you and the asians.it is somewhat like hawaii where they have their own world of theirs. as i live far from my country, i feel like i need my extende family too. it is natural to miss the family members and relatives when far from them. and how about the number of indians present there? if there are many of them there then indians might feel at home and socialize themselves that they wouldn't feel the need to have their extended family with them. and also if transportation is difficult to reach india then they would feel that their family have to come there. :)

[ria]

i rather feel guilty at times..........u see when our parents want us to be with them we r here away from them..........i would have been much happier being with them but there r certain things that can't be helped.

[Seekrit]

Hi sehrish2cherish
i m in australia n living with my nuclear family alone for the past 2 years here.I m away from my extended family(including parents and siblings)

U know living here makes me feel that i m wasting my life n time here.i really miss my family,friends,culture,community,religion,country. When i was in India i never realised the importance of family n relatives which i do now b'coz i have no one around.no b'days to go to,no marriages to attend.

i have made friends around but not like it was in india.the only contact i have with my indian friends is thru email,chatting.whenever i m feeling low i feel like s... coz i don't have anyone around.people even indians living here r very shallow coz they r too engrossed in their lives,never even stop to say hello if u meet them.

I was never keen to celebrate any festival in india but coming here made me realise our rich culture n diversity.i miss having family around those times n the beautiful surroundings of our houses n neighbourhood n cities during festival time .here life has become very monotonous

sometimes i feelthat my children will never appreciate the culture in which i grew up

feelslike totally an alien in this racist country where no religion,no culture ,no studies n occupation is given value.they consider everyone subordinate to them

so these r my views
let me know urs too

[India1989]

I think there are lots of Indians living in Australia. Nowadays specially they have increased immigration. AUstralia's population is also very less. Isolation is very much a reality then over there. There are also no neighbouring country except for New Zealand over there. So not much interaction with them too which will make you busy.

Hey is there racism in Australia?

[Seekrit]

Ya india1989
Although they say that we r multicultural n do not promote racism
still it's here although not as much as in UK
they consider themselves superior to all except americans
even brits come after them even though more than half of the population originated from british n european countries

that's not what i intend to discuss here coz racism is in india too b/w city people n biharis for eg

the thing that hurts is non-communicative behaviour by indians living here
that hurts

if there r any australian indian who do not agree with me
let me know
i'm ready to even make friends

[India1989]

Yeah that might be true. Indians living abroad dont' easily make friends or help each other. But in Canada over here Punjabi community is very strong. THey are always there to help all the Punjabis first and then they also help Indians. Here in Canada racism is very less and i have not been in many places which are white dominated so i can't tell. But yeah you might be right. I have heard about this kind of things in newspaper too.

Indians living abroad don't easily help other indians if the community is not that strong.

In Canada before no Indians helped others but after these new punjabis came they formed many organisations which are there to help Indians.