SECULAR CONSTITUTIONS AND MIGRATION: CHALLENGES TO THE STATUS QUO

Abstract

Many people migrate to Australia and other parts of the world for many reasons. Modern secular democracies such as ours, the United States, Canada, India and most of Europe hold the promise to potential migrants of freedom of religious practice and speech. In an increasingly pluralistic world, many states are finding it difficult to interpret their own constitutional provisions to accommodate increasing numbers of migrants, whose numbers are now such that their voices are being heard in their requests for accommodation where once a strong majority religious view held sway and was the only voice heard in the development of public policy.