A Nepalese Australian has cautioned that sharply rising immigration could weaken Australia’s national identity, leaving newcomers uncertain about the values and traditions that define being Australian.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that net permanent and long-term arrivals reached 494,540 in the year to January 2026, placing the total close to a record high.
January alone recorded a net increase of 57,270 arrivals, the largest figure ever reported for that month.
Shankar, who was identified by his first name only, raised the issue last month while appearing as an audience member on ABC National Forum. He told the program that Australia’s rapid population growth was making it increasingly difficult for migrants to understand the country’s shared identity.
‘When people come in, they need to have a reference point,’ he told host David Speers.
‘The majority of the panel members that are sitting over there, they had a reference point to what Australia was: an identity.
‘And I understand that that identity has been changing over time, but when you start to increase the population in a very short period of time, you start to dilute what that identity is.’
He cited Western Sydney as an example, asking what common cultural foundation was available to migrants arriving in the area.
Shankar, a Nepalese Australian, has warned that rapid immigration could weaken Australia’s national identity and make it harder for newcomers to understand what it means to be Australian
‘What do they assimilate to, what do they aspire to?… You can’t just say it’s multiculturalism, because if you try to cater to everybody, you become nothing,’ he said.
Speers followed up by asking which aspects of migration were causing concern.
‘Migrants aren’t doing anything per se, but what we’re seeing is certain types of religious groups that are advocating for their needs and wants and getting to the high level of politics to advocate for that… You bring in a certain group in huge numbers and it stresses everything,’ Shankar replied.
He described Australian identity as being shaped by Indigenous foundations alongside an ‘Anglo-Saxon heritage, which is all around us and institutions are based on that’.
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‘The reason that this country is so well thought about, is that people can come in and look at that identity and forge something for themselves,’ he said.
However, when Speers asked whether the Anglo-Saxon element of Australia’s identity should be protected, Shankar said culture should not remain fixed.
‘You don’t preserve a culture, like in a museum,’ he said.
‘What you do, is you take the good bits and you build upon it.’
Shankar told host David Speers (pictured): ‘When people come in, they need to have a reference point’
Shankar further warned that Australia’s rapid population growth was causing its shared identity to fracture.
‘What’s happening at the moment is that it is being fractured, because you’ve got many different groups coming in large numbers saying, “Actually, we don’t like that”,’ he said.
‘That might be something that’s taken 100 years to progress, so we’re getting a bit of a challenge.’
When Speers asked how his own experiences reflected his views, Shankar said: ‘The government has allowed for this; it’s not the migrants themselves.’
The debate comes as the Albanese government has kept the 2026–27 Permanent Migration Program at 185,000 places, unchanged from 2025–26, although allocations within the program have shifted.
The Coalition has pledged to cut net overseas migration to 100,000 for its first two years in government, before increasing it to 130,000 in the third year and 160,000 in the fourth.
It says its policies would reduce Australia’s temporary migrant population by about 650,000 over four years.
One Nation has proposed cutting 750,000 temporary visas, which it says would drive net overseas migration below zero for three years before it rose to 130,000 in the fourth year.