Asian Australian Experiences of Racism During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Victoria: a Preliminary Analysis

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, reports of racism and racial discrimination towards those of an Asian cultural background have increased in culturally diverse countries around the world. The current study sought to gain clarity about Asian Australian experiences of racism by conducting inferential and descriptive analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected from the Australian state of Victoria (n = 436). Building on previous studies which have identified a range of modalities and consequences of COVID-19-related racism, participants were prompted to consider their experiences of racism in the year prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 as well as their experiences during the pandemic on four measures—Direct Experiences of Racism, Vicarious Experiences of Racism (online and in-person), Everyday Racism and Hypervigilance. For the target group (participants with an East or Southeast Asian cultural background resident in Victoria), analysis showed an increase in experiences across three of the four measures, with small to moderate effect sizes, Everyday Racism (r = 0.22), Vicarious Experiences of Racism (r = 0.19) and Hypervigilance (r = 0.43). Analysis demonstrated that the target group experienced a significant increase in online experiences of racism (r = 0.28). These findings shed light on the contradictory findings of previous research on pandemic-related racism in Australia. We show that the pandemic impacted Victorians likely to be perceived as of Chinese background more than other Asian Australians.