Multiculturalism in Australia - Literature review Example

Multiculturalism in Australia [Name of the Student] [Name of the University] Multiculturalism in Australia The concept of multiculturalism entails considerable intricacy, and it incorporates several disparate issues. For instance, this concept can be utilised in a naïve and descriptive manner to characterise a society. Nevertheless, it can constitute a normative – cognitive concept, or a means to justify the view that cultures are fundamentally hybrid in nature[Mar98]. In addition, multiculturalism can be employed to provide ethnic identity with political force and as a defence against the policies of assimilation. Moreover, it can be construed as an attempt at subverting progress and destabilising the homogenising, beneficial and unifying policies of the nation. As had been suggested by Carter and Pappas, in their research paper, a country is endowed with multiculturalism, only if it is willing and capable of undertaking direct action and deploying resources towards achieving multiculturalism[Mar98]. Some of the choices available to a nation that dubs itself multicultural are described in the sequel. The first of these merely permits a basic right to exist to immigrant communities and their cultures. However, such bestowal of basic right does not include equal rights. In other words, the host culture ascribes to itself and preserves superiority; and cultural diversity is established on an explicit hierarchy of cultures[Mar98]. Another option available to the multicultural society is to encourage the notion of equal citizenship. This entails the bestowal of equal right to immigrant societies, which includes the right to retain their own culture. In reality, the rights provided to immigrant societies lie in between these two extremes. Evidently, the basic question remains unanswered; namely to what extent can minorities exercise their right to communal organisation, family, language, religion and communal customs, without posing a threat to the political unity of the society of the nation as a whole. Those who support multiculturalism are vociferous in their claim that cultural diversity improves democratic processes[Mar98]. It has been suggested that a distinction should be drawn between the proposals emanating from multiculturalism and the demands made of the social democratic welfare state. Multiculturalism proposals require the members of an ethnic minority group to portray themselves as being different from the cultural perspective[Mar98]. In Australia, multiculturalism is well entrenched and despite the confusion and inspiration that outsiders experience on account of it, immigration policy is very important in the politics of multiculturalism. Since the past half century, there have been immigrants to Australia from more than 120 nations. In addition, since the year 1960, the annual net increase in Australia’s population has been in excess of 50, 000[Mar98]. The inflow of persons from other nations can be assessed from the fact that over the period 1960 to 1970, there had been a net increase of 100,000. Immediately after the end of the war, the number of people who had been born in Australia was around 90% of the total population. This reduced to 25% by the year 1998. In addition, there were 2.4 million out of a total of 18 million inhabitants, who did not speak English as their first language. The proportion of such non – English speaking persons has depicted a gradual increase over the years[Mar98]. It has become commonplace for the societies of the world to be subjected to the challenge of according respect for individual rights and freedoms, due to the ever increasing diversity of communities; and this difficulty is not unique to Australia. It is indispensable to identify the common factors that have a bearing on the manner in which diversity and immigration are viewed across national perspectives[Dan10]. Such insight has the capacity to bring to the fore general principles that relate to the intergroup relations. Knowledge regarding the relationship between the attitude of Australians towards diversity, immigration and multiculturalism and perceived threat or security, is scant[Dan10]. An analysis of the various commercial opinion polls and surveys conducted over the past half century, which were focused on immigration, has led to the conclusion that a dramatic change has transpired in the attitudes of Australians towards the various immigration policies. Apparently there exists a relationship between these developments and the changes that are taking place in the domestic economy and unemployment[Dan10]. Thus, there was an upsurge in negative attitudes during the recession of the economy in the 1990s. In a survey conducted among respondents who had been born in Australia, it was observed that there was moderate support, on the whole, towards multiculturalism. However, this support was qualified by apprehensions regarding intergroup relations and social cohesion. A recent survey in this area, disclosed the existence of practical tolerance with regard to multiculturalism[Dan10]. Although, the many Australians have acknowledged multiculturalism to be an integral component of their society, there have been quite a few individuals who have harboured an ambivalent attitude to this development. A certain amount of contradictory behaviour was noticed among the youth, who were strongly in favour of multiculturalism, while deeming it to be the creator of conflict and separation[Dan10]. In fact, there are a significant number of youth from cultures that are not Anglo – Australian, who believe that mainstream Australian society has not accepted them without any reservations. Furthermore, it has been discovered that several of the demographic variables are significantly associated with the manner in which cultural diversity, immigration and multiculturalism are perceived[Dan10]. This explains the reason behind the proclivity of immigrants from non – English speaking backgrounds towards enhancing immigration. It was also discerned that individuals with an education procured from a university, were to a greater extent, promoters of immigration, cultural diversity and multiculturalism[Dan10]. Furthermore, an individual with a parent who had attended university was more likely to support multiculturalism. In addition, the younger people were seen to favour immigration, cultural diversity and multiculturalism, in comparison to the older people[Dan10]. With regard to the unemployed, it was noticed that these individuals harboured strong negative views regarding immigration and multiculturalism. With regard to the preferences of the people, it was discerned that the majority of the Australians, were in favour of skilled migration, followed by family reunion and migration on humanitarian grounds[Dan10]. In general, there was not much enthusiasm regarding migration from the countries of the Middle East, and immigration from the UK was being promoted by the British – Australians. There have been several studies at the international level, which have clearly shown that there is a marked hostility towards immigrants from some countries among Australians. Thus, in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, there has been an increase in anti – Muslim feelings in Australia[Dan10]. The ideology of cultural homogeneity is undoubtedly inimical to a multicultural society. As such, it indicates the unsettled conceptual strain that persists in Australia’s official multiculturalism. The potential threats posed by perspectives founded on socio – biological considerations transcend the creation of opposition to multiculturalism in the community to creating an ideological foundation for politics based on race. In addition, this attempts to compromise the citizenship of individuals who do not belong to the Anglo – Celtic, host society standard[Dun04]. Modern sociology tends to rely sparingly on social cohesion. In the past, social cohesion had been considered to be of great importance, and society had been viewed as a system that was all encompassing. Such society was believed to be founded on shared values and its members or subsidiary systems were considered to function in a manner that promoted the welfare of the entire system[Col93]. From this perspective, conflict was deviant and counterproductive. Some theories, such as that of Parks, held the view that every new ethnic group had to necessarily negotiate the path of conflict, while attempting to gain assimilation. There have been other approaches to this issue that have been produced by individualistic psychological and sociobiological approaches. These tend to view prejudice and conflict as being generated by human nature. In effect, this relegates racism to the realm of human pathology [Col93]. On the other hand, the social psychological approaches arrive at a relationship between the attitude of individuals, which result in conflict. There has been a marked decline in public and political support for multiculturalism in Australia. Subsequent to the assumption of power by the Howard government in the year 1996, multiculturalism has been relegated to the background. Several important aspects of the multicultural policy were excised by this government, including the Adult Migrant English Service[Wis07]. In fact, funding for this entity was drastically reduced, while a simultaneous enhancement was made in the funding for community harmony programmes. This latter initiative of the Australian government has as its principal objective the promotion of interconnections between groups and the production of social cohesion and mutual obligation[Wis07]. The majority of the programmes that receive government funds incorporate community based initiatives. The focus is on building the capacity of the community. As such, the Australian government has shown a marked disinclination towards multiculturalism[Wis07]. An attempt is being made to correlate racism and prejudice to social structures and social problems. Obviously, the concept of social cohesion is muddled and replete with values. Thus, modern sociology relies on racism as the mainstay of ethnic conflict in the contemporary capitalist society. The government has to take initiatives in framing policies and implement them strictly, to promote cohesion among people of various cultures in Australia. It can be surmised from the foregoing that multiculturalism in Australia has resulted in a decrease in social cohesion. List of References Mar98: , (Marden & Mercer, 1998, p. 945), Mar98: , (Marden & Mercer, 1998, p. 946), Dan10: , (Dandy & Pe – Pua, 2010, p. 35), Dan10: , (Dandy & Pe – Pua, 2010, p. 36), Dun04: , (Dunn, Forrest, Burnley, & McDonald, 2004, p. 417), Col93: , (Collins, 1993, p. 19), Wis07: , (Wise, 2007), Read More