Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has slammed former Labor opposition leader Mark Latham's portrayal of the Fairfield and Cabramatta migrant communities as isolated from the rest of society.
Mr Bowen, who represents the area, said videos Mr Latham had recently been posting on Facebook showing himself interviewing migrants presented a skewed image of the suburbs.
"Multiculturalism is the lifeblood of my community, we live and breathe it every day and we don't need Mark Latham telling us what to think," Mr Bowen told SBS World News.
"The people of Fairfield and Cabramatta include generations of refugees and migrants who have come here, learned English, worked and studied hard, had families and make fine contributions to the community."
In Mr Latham's latest video posted this week, the former Sky News commentator posed the question: had Cabramatta's migrants integrated better than Fairfield's?
"In terms of Asian integration into the multicultural community, you'd have to say a little bit better than Fairfield Town Centre, but not a lot, most people just stick to themselves," said Mr Latham, who was dismissed from Sky in March over a series of controversial comments.
Text flashes across the screen: "If multiculturalism is to succeed it must be based on migrant communities integrating and mixing with each other, plus the broader Australian-born community."
In a video about Fairfield he posted in April, he spoke with several people who said they were not confident with their English language skills.
Mr Latham told the camera: "The news from the streets of Fairfield is pretty disappointing".
"Ninety per cent of the people said they couldn't speak to me because they haven't got English," he said.
Fairfield is one of the most multicultural suburbs in Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show more than half the residents were born overseas and more than 70 per cent speak a language other than English at home.
In 2016 alone, more than 3000 refugees settled in the suburb, many from Syria and Iraq - three times more than it usually accepts each year.
Mr Bowen posted a video of his own to Facebook on Thursday in which he interviewed migrants who lived in Fairfield to show Mr Latham had got it wrong.
In the video, Mr Bowen speaks with a pharmacist in Fairfield called Chris who says his parents migrated to Australia 25 years ago "to give us a better life".
Chris says he gained first class honours and opened up a pharmacy about nine years ago.
He also talks to a local GP Dr Tien, who arrived as a refugee in 1980, and student "Ruqaya" who arrived three years ago from Syria.
Dr Tien says just three months after arriving in Sydney he passed an exam that admitted him to the University of NSW medical school.
He describes his Fairfield practice as "a multicultural pot".
Another resident, Ruqaya, says she learned English "from scratch", and was now studying a law and creative arts degree.
Their comments come after the federal government announced in April an overhaul of its citizenship laws.
Under the changes, prospective Australian citizens will need to prove they're fluent in English, demonstrate "Australian values", and that they've integrated into the society.
Watch: PM announces new citizenship rules
Mr Turnbull told SBS World News this week that changes to the citizenship test would empower migrants.
"Is it unreasonable to say that people should have a competent understanding and ability to read and write and speak English to become an Australian citizen?" he said.
"How can you succeed, how can you progress effectively in Australia without English?"
