MANY south-west residents are uncomfortable with family members marrying foreigners, according to a major social science survey.
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A national study of attitudes towards race and multiculturalism has found Australians are mostly tolerant of cultural difference, including those living in south-west Victoria.
However, the region reported higher than average opposition to the prospect of their relatives marrying people of different ethnicity or religion to themselves.
People who responded to the survey were most concerned about a relative marrying someone of Muslim faith (43 per cent), Aboriginal background (25 per cent) or Asian background (22 per cent).
The Challenging Racism project commissioned by several universities surveyed more than 12,500 people nationally during the past decade.
South-west respondents were more tolerant of other ethnic groups than most other regions of the nation but it was revealed more people were against inter-racial marriage than the Australian average.
Melbourne University senior research fellow Yin Paradies said surveyed south-west participants were more tolerant of certain ethnic groups than many other parts of regional Australia.
He said reluctance to accept foreign or indigenous in-laws was effected by educational status as well as exposure to other cultures.
"From all the research we conducted, overall Victoria is one of the most tolerant states in Australia and that is due to a range of factors," Dr Paradies said.
"The south-west is a largely rural area and on the whole regional Australia tends to have less cultural diversity than urban areas which can effect the response of participants in varying ways.
Dr Paradies said the south-west recorded slightly above-average levels of opposition to cultural diversity, beliefs in assimilation and self-identified prejudice.
However, he said the statistical difference was not significant.
"Majority opinion to certain national and religious groups changes over the decades in response to growing presence and changes in accepted views," Dr Paradies said.
"An example would be the intolerance faced by people who immigrated to Australia from Greece and Italy after World War II.
''The study found prejudice towards those nationalities has declined significantly."
More than 87 per cent of Warrnambool residents are Australian-born, according to the 2006 census.
Similar statistics are recorded at Hamilton with 88 per cent of residents Australian-born, Portland (86 per cent), Port Fairy (88 per cent), Camperdown (88 per cent) and Mortlake (90 per cent).
The national average is 71 per cent.
Lead researcher Kevin Dunn said the decade-long study showed there was a need for government initiatives that brought people of different ethnic groups together in a social context.
