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Australia: From Migrant Country to Multicultural Nation
... True political inclusion for migrants can only occur with the acceptance of migrants within a state or, as Kymlicka would argue, high levels of civility. For this to occur, it must be understood that there is a difference between a person's nationality and citizenship (Lardy 1997;Safran 1997;Smolicz 1997). For example, Safran points out that for many immigrants, "the acquisition of formal citizenship does not imply the acquisition of the host country's 'nationality'"-to the extent that the latter is defined in terms of a sharing of that country's historical consciousness and myths (1997, p.328). ...
... For example, Safran points out that for many immigrants, "the acquisition of formal citizenship does not imply the acquisition of the host country's 'nationality'"-to the extent that the latter is defined in terms of a sharing of that country's historical consciousness and myths (1997, p.328). This being the case, the importance of acceptance of different nationalities within a state can help build bridges in society (Smolicz 1997). Therefore, for a successful multicultural state, both cultural and political recognition and acceptance is needed. ...
... The important aspect of incorporating migrants into a state politically and socially is to accept cultural diversity and decrease the "fear of otherness", that is, fearing people who are different from ourselves ( Smolicz 1997, p.182). The unity of a state, as manifested by its common citizenship and its institutional structures, should be complemented by the recognition, toleration and acceptance of cultural diversity at a national level (Smolicz 1997). ...
This thesis examines whether the introduction of citizenship education in New Zealand would increase the levels of active citizenship of young migrant New Zealanders, using voter turnout as a measure. This research draws attention to an overlooked part of New Zealand political science research by studying young migrant New Zealanders. The theories and topics covered in this research include the notion of citizenship, education, political participation, social capital and multiculturalism. Both surveys and interviews are used to gauge young New Zealanders’ political attitudes and opinions, and their levels of political knowledge, interest, sophistication and socialisation are examined. The findings of this research suggest that citizenship education would not only be beneficial to young migrant New Zealanders but that citizenship education would benefit all young New Zealanders. It is argued that an increase in all young New Zealanders’ levels of political knowledge and interest are likely to have a positive effect on voter turnout levels. It is also argued that the current education curriculum does not explicitly encourage such learning. Using these findings in conjunction with theory, it is recommended that citizenship education is implemented into the New Zealand secondary school curriculum to ensure that New Zealand’s democracy is in good health for the current and future generations.
... The increase in the further development of cultural diversity in Australia appears to result from the arrival of European settlers to Australia and its subsequent colonization, and the eventual migration of other groups. This diversity in the cultural makeup of Australia can be seen through the diverse ethnic groups that make up a part of the Australian population (Jupp, 1995;Raymer, Shi, Guan, Baffour, & Wilson, 2018;Smolicz, 1997). It has been suggested that Australians hold mostly positive attitudes toward cultural diversity due to the implementation of liberal, progressive values such as inclusion and respect toward others (Bouma, 2016;Markus, 2014). ...
In this paper we investigate the attitudes that Australian domestic university students hold toward cultural diversity on a large, metropolitan university campus. We employed a qualitative approach incorporating five individual semistructured interviews, and a focus group in order to gather data on the participants’ attitudes toward cultural diversity, and the contributing influences on these attitudes. The findings of this study indicate that the participants’ attitudes were impacted significantly by past and present experiences of cultural diversity, and the immersion in a culturally diverse university campus. The research contextualizes how these life experiences are responsible for shaping attitudes toward cultural diversity on university campus and provides an insight into the influence of cultural diversity on Australian university campuses, including how such diversity policies have influenced attitudes. Importantly it discusses how more culturally inclusive learning environments can be created on university campus to accommodate this increasing diversity and how this translates into a more successful learning environment.
... Australia, while sharing similarities with New Zealand and Canada, is relatively unique in its emphasis on naturalising migrants, forming what some call a laboratory for multiculturalism (Smolicz, 1997). Over more than a century, since federation in 1901, Australia has seen some major shifts in the demographic make-up of new migrants, shifting most clearly from a policy of white-only migration to becoming more and more part of Asia, with a corresponding change of reflection in the composition of new migrants (Jupp, 1995). ...
Migrants can be at risk of losing both their connection to the people they love and access to trusted social networks in their country of origin. This thesis examines migrant well-being in Australia. It specifically investigates (1) associations between a range of social (relational) factors, including social support and social capital, and the likelihood of migrants flourishing or experiencing psychological distress as well as (2) potential cultural differences in these patterns.
Four major migrant populations were targeted for comparison based on the GLOBE region model, distinguishing between broad cultural groupings: Anglo, Southern Asia, Confucian Asia, and Other European. An online survey was conducted involving 1446 migrants living in Australia aged 18 years and older. The data was analysed using multiple linear and logistic regressions, along with mediation analysis.
Results were presented in four peer-reviewed papers. Paper 1 identified significant demographic and psychosocial factors associated with flourishing and/or psychological distress, for example, identifying as Australian, and experiencing racism and discrimination. Papers 2–4 focused on social support and social capital and found specific cultural differences throughout. Paper 2 identified different sources of social support linked to a lower likelihood of distress and a higher likelihood of flourishing. Paper 3 identified associations between using various modes of communication to stay in touch with family and friends in the home country and the likelihood of flourishing and distress. Paper 4 examined social capital and found that two aspects of social capital, generalised trust and social network resources, were linked in different ways to either flourishing or distress.
The findings from this research provide new knowledge about a range of social factors associated with the mental health of migrants from different cultural backgrounds. These will be useful for identifying ways to improve migration outcomes, and in particular, how distress might be managed and flourishing promoted through social-based interventions targeted to specific groups of migrants.
... In recent years, more Australian rural towns are coming to terms with the permanent presence of new and different ethnic groups (Hugo, Khoo, & McDonald, 2003;McDonald, Gifford, Webster, Wiseman, & Casey, 2008;Smolicz, 1997). Community uncertainty about belonging results in responses ranging from inclusion to rejection within Australian civil society (Noble, 2005;Rundell, 2004;Sandercock, 2000). ...
This article explores local media reporting about South Sudanese humanitarian migrants moving into a Victorian rural country town in Australia. In contrast with often cited negative media reporting on migrants, the newspaper articles examined positively construct South Sudanese humanitarian migrants as Australian citizens, attempting to reduce anxiety and uncertainty about the presence of these strangers in a country town without prior experience of African migrants. The news reports, however, also hint at discursive power relations within the community; locals and newcomers exist amid the supportive work of local volunteers. News stories illuminate layered cultural power defining the new relationship yet also indicate everyday possibilities for building micro-level inter-ethnic relations.
... For the second aspect of integration, from a domestic perspective, the adoption of multiculturalism appeared as a break with traditional exclusivist nationalism in Australia (Smolicz 1997 ). From this point of view, countries seem to be characterized by particular modes of belonging, and integration models have thus been analysed, especially in comparative studies (Brubaker 1992 ;Castles and Miller 2003 ). ...
Expounding the concept of political memories, Kleist shows how in commemorations of Australia Day, Australia’s national day, two different forms of memory with distinct narratives were utilized to remember the landing of the First Fleet, which brought the first European settlers to Australia’s shores in 1788. With these two politically competing forms of memory, one referring to an event as origin, the other to a process, distinct concepts of Australian society were expressed. Cultural memories of an origin implied a belonging based on communal and nationalistic notions of Australian nativism. In contrast, civic memories of processes characterized a civic belonging under the Empire’s rule and through democratic institutions. Kleist illustrates the contestation surrounding belonging and migration in a number of events commemorating Australia Day and the First Fleet, from the early settler colony leading up to Australian Federation, and during the first half of the twentieth century. The politically opposed forms of memory and their implicit modes of belonging were crucial, Kleist argues, for positioning Australia Day as an anti- or pro-immigration commemoration, respectively, and for discussing social and political conflicts of Australian society.
... The 1980s saw multiculturalism emerge as a national ideal. This new mindset was accompanied by a sizeable increase in governmental spending on adult migrant education and symbolised by the replacement of the term 'alien' by 'non-citizen' in the Migration Act (Jupp, 2003;Smolicz, 1997). ...
... 10 It also advocated multiculturalism as a national ideal "and sought to uphold and develop an overarching framework of Australian values in which the rights of individuals from minority group backgrounds to maintain their ethnic identity was assured." 11 Of course, Australia's turn toward multiculturalism is not perfect and I do not wish to gloss over the difficulties. As with any society, Australia has had and continues to have problems stemming from "ethnic relations." ...
... Most national movements and elites gravitate around chosen core values, including race, language, and religion (Smolicz 1997; Smolicz and Secombe 1999: Ch. 4). Language has been usually selected as a particularly cherished and loved element of nationhood (Fishman 1997 ), turning into the most widespread tool of mobilization for nationalist elites. ...
In response to Joshua Fishman's article, this paper examines the fate of the principle of national cultural autonomy (NCA), first theorized within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later revived within contemporary Europe. It posits that NCA can be more easily implemented in cases where culture is built around a set of shared core values and cultural elements, including language. Yet, an exclusive focus on language may not lead to a vibrant pluralistic society where various forms of culture coexist and interact.
This article examines the fertility patterns of immigrant groups in Australia during the period, 1977–1991. In this period, the previous policies of assimilation or integration of immigrants into mainstream culture were set aside in favor of a policy of multiculturalism, one of the dimensions of which was support for maintenance of culture. The general finding of research relating to the period prior to multiculturalism was that immigrants adapted to Australian fertility patterns. This study examines whether immigrants and their children in the era of multiculturalism have been more likely to maintain the fertility patterns of their country of origin than was the case in the past. The study concludes that while adaptation to Australian patterns remains the dominant feature of the fertility patterns of immigrants, Italian and Greek Australians show evidence of cultural maintenance.
Drawing on the empirical studies offered in the previous chapters, Kleist discusses how memories, migration, and belonging relate by being political. Specifically, he interrogates the benefits of analysing political memories for our understanding of migrant integration, for the study of memories and migration, and for social critique. He argues that utilizing the application of political memories in migration debates allows us to bring together approaches that focus either on international or domestic factors in the development of integration policies. Australian migration policies then are a result of how conflicts about political memories and belonging were structured along a social fault line in the course of the country’s history as well as a result of global shifts in how people relate to civic and communal belonging. The concept of political memory thus broadens the perspective and relevance of memory studies by looking at the social and political function of memories and how memories structure social relations. In migration studies, the concept of political memories offers a methodological tool to independently analyse the relationship between notions of belonging and migration policies. Finally, Kleist argues that the political of memories critically reveals contradictions and violence that structures society that otherwise are ideologically concealed, not least by the application of commemorations and memories.
Since colonisation in 1788, Australia has been a country of immigration. Over the centuries, new settlers have often encountered hostility from British settlers, intent on keeping the country British and white. Like virtually all highly developed countries since 1945, Australia experienced large-scale immigration and ethnic diversity. Initially, this was largely unexpected and unplanned, and had quite unforeseen effects on the society, culture and on political institutions. Throughout the post-war period, anti-immigration and anti-minority sentiments have waxed and waned. Periodically, discriminatory or exclusionary attitudes to anyone who is perceived to be different dominate the social and political landscape. Such sentiments have been based on a number of fears, such as increases in unemployment, growth in Asian immigration, and fear of too large a population to be sustained by public services or the natural environment.
The essay is an initial attempt to deal with the circumstances that are relevant to the beginning of the lay movement, called the Federazione Cattolica Italiana (FCI), founded in a storeroom adjacent to the Catholic parish of Fitzroy (Vic), in Australia. It briefly analyses some developments which were occurring within Australian Society, such as the fear of Communism in those years; the policies of assimilation, integration and multiculturalism that concerned both civil society and the churches over the last fifty years; the geographical and cultural isolation of Australia; and the control exercised by Irish clergy over internal matters and development of the Church in Australia. In the concluding sections it highlights some specific features of the organization.
A comparative study of ethnic identity in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Peru, the United States of America, and Uruguay that illustrates the effects of globalization on the daily lives of Basques living abroad, which reveals the complex universe of the dispersed Basques.
This paper acknowledges the profound contributions of Professor J J Smolicz. Professor Smolicz, who has over the past twenty years, been an influential figure to multicultural education. Many educators would agree that social pluralism has been instilled in the modern psyche and that the promotion of Australian linguistic and cultural diversity has evolved from its humble beginning to what is now a fairly strong entity. From little things, big things grow; MEC carries on what Professor Smolicz has started and continues with its important work.
Harnessing concepts and theories from sociology, anthropology, and political science, this interdisciplinary study compares the vastly different experiences of two Croatian immigrant cohorts who have settled in the city of Perth in Western Australia. The populations explored represent an earlier group of working-class migrants arriving from communist Yugoslavia from the 1950s to 1970s and a later group of urban professionals arriving in the 1980s and 1990s as 'independent' or skills-based migrants. This latter group integrated into professional ranks but also used their Australian experience as a stepping stone in becoming part of a highly mobile global professional middle class. Employing a refined theoretical analysis, this rich ethnography challenges the domination of the ethnic perspective in migration studies and the idea of ethnic community itself. It emphasizes the importance of class, focusing on the intersection of class, ethnicity, and gender in the process of migration, migrant incorporation and transnationalism. In theorizing the connection of the two migrant cohorts with their native Croatia the study introduces concepts of "ethnic" and "cosmopolitan" transnationalism as two distinctive experiences mediated by class.
This article examines the fertility patterns of immigrant groups in Australia during the period, 1977-1991. In this period, the previous policies of assimilation or integration of immigrants into mainstream culture were set aside in favor of a policy of multiculturalism, one of the dimensions of which was support for maintenance of culture. The general finding of research relating to the period prior to multiculturalism was that immigrants adapted to Australian fertility patterns. This study examines whether immigrants and their children in the era of multiculturalism have been more likely to maintain the fertility patterns of their country of origin than was the case in the past. The study concludes that while adaptation to Australian patterns remains the dominant feature of the fertility patterns of immigrants, Italian and Greek Australians show evidence of cultural maintenance.
Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations reflects on the tensions and contradictions that arise within debates on social inclusion, arguing that both the concept of social inclusion and policy surrounding it need to incorporate visions of citizenship that value ethnic diversity. Presenting the latest empirical research from Australia and engaging with contemporary global debates on questions of identity, citizenship, intercultural relations and social inclusion, this book unsettles fixed assumptions about who is included as a valued citizen and explores the possibilities for engendering inclusive visions of citizenship in local, national and transnational spaces. Organised around the themes of identity, citizenship and intercultural relations, this interdisciplinary collection sheds light on the role that ethnic diversity can play in fostering new visions of inclusivity and citizenship in a globalised world.
This book critically examines the history and current issues on the migration of Indian students to Australia.
This review article aims to critically summarise David Cox's (1996) book, Understanding Australian Settlement Services and to point out how the settlement services have evolved over a period of fifty years. The interaction between immigration pressures and movements and different government's policies and programmes have influenced the development of settlement services in Australia. A clear and an objective understanding of the development of these services will facilitate the peaceful coexistence of a multicultural society. This book undoubtedly serves that purpose.
This article considers approaches explaining the revival of ethnic‐nationalist phenomena in the face of globalizing influences. It argues that these are best understood in terms of ethnic identity based on the core values of a group's cultural heritage. Australia is presented as an example of a plural society that has dealt with minority ethnic inputs through the adoption of a multicultural policy which gives recognition to minority ethnic cultures and identities within a framework of shared values for the whole society. Research evidence on the patterns of cultural interaction among a group of university graduates is presented to illustrate changing patterns of attitudes and cultural activation under Australia's multicultural policies.
Every society wrestles with its own cultural issues. Wherever multi-culturalism exists, it presents an extraordinary challenge
to the society. Where heterogeneity of one kind and degree or another exists, it requires the society to deal with a unique
set of challenges. These include the need to legitimize the incorporation of ethnic diversity among its members, as well as
to create a sense of national unity among the members of these diverse ethnicities (Kallen, 1982). As part of this process, it is also necessary to invite and increase citizen participation in civil society (Tiryakian,
2004). Without these participatory processes, cultural diversity produces social fragmentation, rather than a unified society.
This paper examines the creation of a distinctly Polish place by Polish migrants and their children, in Sydney, Australia. I explore the use of place as a means of maintaining distinct ethno-cultural identity in diaspora by evaluating how different groups of Polish people contextualise their diasporic identity, attribute meaning to place, and how these meanings change through time. Differing generational cohorts and waves of migration within Sydney's Polish diaspora (re)create Bielany as a place for maintaining Polish identity by reproducing a familiar and homely place and by centring Bielany as a main venue for recreation and social functions. Notions of place attachment, expressed through participation in activities, ownership and maintenance of a communal Polish place, and emotional linkages to that place, evince their preference for and their connection to a shared and distinctly Polish place.
Whereas multicultural citizenship in theory has focused on minority and group-differentiated rights, multicultural citizenship in practice has been framed in terms of the universal rights and obligations of citizenship. This paper seeks to address this apparent gap. It evaluates ‘civic pluralist’ models of multiculturalism, such as those in Australia and Canada, in which cultural difference is expressed within the limits of a common civic culture. A civic pluralist model of multicultural citizenship must meet two tests; it must not only recognize cultural difference in the public sphere but must also provide a new basis for political belonging. This requires an ‘open’ political culture or ‘deliberative democracy’, in which political institutions and practices are exposed to scrutiny and re-interpretation, and a sense of belonging based less upon shared political values and more upon common membership of public debate within a political community.
This paper explores the possibilities of federalist and multicultural theory as a basis to generate perception change within Israeli-Jewish society. In an innovative course, student subjects were exposed to the narratives of a variety of subgroups, participated in a workshop, and studied various examples of federalism and multiculturalism as an alternative to Israel's historic melting pot model. Their opinions on Israeli society and cultural outlook were analyzed based on qualitative methods and consensus theory (which is being introduced as a measurement of attitudinal change). The data indicates that the course was able to generate empathy for the “other,” encourage the students to identify commonalities between disparate subgroups and to consolidate the consensus and change some opinions toward a more federalist multicultural viewpoint. Based on this experiment, we suggest that there is a foundation to consider a federalist multicultural model as a vehicle to reduce social tensions in Israel and elsewhere.
This article describes how the Australian university system has become increasingly multi‐ethnic and multicultural as a reflection of the greater Australian society that is also increasingly multicultural and multi‐ethnic. As the universities have evolved from being elitist institutions, based on a British model and accessible to only a small proportion of the population, to units making up a mass system, they have had to contend with two contradictory forces: government mandated efforts to increase the representation on university campuses of disadvantaged groups and pressures to reduce government spending for higher education. Increasing efforts, after 1990, on the part of Australian universities to recruit full‐fee paying foreign students have intensified student multi‐ethnicity on Australian campuses while providing near windfall sources of extra funds. Yet there are voices being raised regarding the propriety and the ethics of selling higher education in this way.
In spite of globalisation and the homogenising trends which accompany it, the vitality of ethnic identity, anchored in linguistic and cultural core values, has become a world phenomenon, with minority languages encountering varying degrees of support or suppression. This paper examines the changing legislation and education policies towards minority languages in Australia. The country' semergence from an assimilationist past to embrace a more multicultural approach is analysed with special reference to young Cambodian-Australians' educational achievements that show the vital importance of school support for minority language literacy and students' subsequent professional advancement. The paper concludes by re-affirming the need for a supportive community milieu to be supplemented by school literacy programs in minority languages, in that either of these two factors on its own may be insufficient to ensure successful language maintenance and development.
The chapter examines the conflicting forces of homogenisation and division generated by globalisation and, in particular, their effect in weakening the traditional powers of the nation-state. One of these forces is the rise of various indigenous and ethnic minorities, demanding greater recognition and support for their cultural identities as well as greater autonomy. This chapter suggests that cross-civilisational dialogue can help to resolve the complex issues that face each country and the whole world order.
Under the impact of economic, political and cultural globalisation, one could expect that the whole world would tend to become more and more culturally homogeneous until a convergence of cultures eventuated. Such homogenising forces have impinged upon nation-states causing them to lose some of their traditional omnipotence and charisma. The rising significance of international organisations has eroded some of the states’ powers, as has the increasing acceptance of dual citizenship and the virtually uncontrollable migratory flows across the globe. An example taken from Australia illustrates the dimensions of the latter problem facing many states, even one such as Australia that was formerly proud of its ability to control immigration inflow, with immigrants carefully classified as ‘skilled’, ‘family reunion’, ‘refugees’ and ‘humanitarian need’ cases. Australia has no official category for asylum seekers who arrive without official papers by boat, by air or inside cargo containers. This ‘illegal’ migration flow was no longer a minor problem. In 2000, 4,174 asylum seekers were washed up on Australian shores, arriving in 75 boats (a substantial increase from the 157 people who came in 1997–1998) (Hugo, 2001, p. 188). The weakening authority of the nation-state in the face of such crises has paradoxically generated forces that counteract the homogenising effects of globalisation. As control slips out of its grasp, the state faces the rising demands of its local, regional and various other minority groups, which are gaining confidence and demanding their ‘place in the sun’. We are witnessing round the world a renaissance, a resurgence of ethnicity (Huntington, 1996). While political boundaries are tending to become more permeable, especially in places like Western Europe, cultural boundaries are becoming accentuated within countries. In this context, it is important to realise that the cultural and political boundaries between states do not
The cultural aspects of globalisation are often overshadowed by its economic impact, although both impinge upon the pattern of interaction among national and ethnic cultures within the state (see Smolicz & Secombe, 2005; Zajda, 2005, 2007, Zajda et al. 2008). In this chapter, Australia is taken as an example of a multi-ethnic state which is in the process of building a nation based upon a multicultural, rather than monocultural framework. The Australian case study is discussed as a possible model for other multi-ethnic countries in their search for a solution to the pluralist dilemma of how to achieve a resilient and stable nation state which does not negate the persistence of cultural pluralism along ethnic lines. Such a search has universal significance, since it calls for stability based upon the interdependence of peoples and cultures, and ultimately of whole regions and civilisations. The key lies in a global interculturalism that transcends national/ethnic affiliations by overcoming borders that have a cultural meaning, as well as those of solely political and administrative significance.
Research has shown that informal mentoring relationships benefit the protégé, mentor and employing organisation. As such they have been of interest to public accounting firms. The functioning of these relationships in Big Eight/Big Five accounting firms has been investigated in the USA and more recently in Ireland. The career outcome of most interest has been turnover intentions. This paper reports the results of a questionnaire study of mentoring relationships in the Australian state of Queensland. The receipt of mentoring support by accountants is found to be associated with not only lower turnover intentions, but also higher job satisfaction, and lower intentions of female accountants to seek part-time employment. The impact of the organisational context in which these relationships are initiated and cultivated is also investigated. The size of the accounting firm and the national culture of the country in which the firm operates, appear to have some bearing on mentoring experiences.
“Civilization should be judged by its treatment of minorities.”
- Hill P.