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National Forum
In the National forum we cover a range of public issues of importance to all Australians. Is multiculturalism failing? Is our democracy damaged by corporate donations? Should the Melbourne Cup be a national holiday?
Multiculturalism in Australia is failing.
In Brief
Scenes from the Sydney protests (Image: Jamie Kennedy, Flickr)
Earlier this month, some members of Sydney’s Muslim community took to the streets to vent their fury at an anti-Islamic video that had already provoked an explosive reaction around the world. The resulting violence and displays of intolerance – embodied in the now-infamous image of a child holding a poster advocating the beheading of “all those who insult the prophet” – have again raised questions about the state of multiculturalism in Australian society. According to Gerard Henderson, the riots were “yet more evidence that multiculturalism – after a promising start – has failed”. Other commentators and public figures, like Frank Lowy, quickly leapt to its defence.
What is actually meant by the term “multiculturalism”? It refers partly to the simple fact that Australia has a culturally and ethnically diverse society. But more than that, it refers to the policy choices that Australia has made to respond to, accommodate and foster this diversity: such as our migration policies, anti-discrimination laws and the rights we grant to minority groups.
So to determine whether multiculturalism is failing, it’s important to consider the primary aims of multicultural policy. There are three basic “dimensions” outlined by the Government:
- All Australians should have a right to express and share their cultural heritage
- All Australians should have a right to equality of treatment and opportunity
- All Australians should be able to develop and use their talents in Australia’s economy
These goals also come with a series of limitations:
- All Australians, regardless of their background, should be united in their commitment to Australia and its interests
- All Australians should respect the basic structures and principles of Australian society, including non-discrimination and the rule of law
- The right to express one’s own cultural identity must be balanced by an obligation to respect the identities of others
So multiculturalism would be failing if achieving its primary aims is becoming ever more difficult.
The issue of multiculturalism’s failure is not unique to Australia. In the past two years, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s David Cameron and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy have all declared that multicultural policies had “failed”. Australia has tended to see itself as a success story when it comes to incorporating diverse identities: but is that still true today?
For |
Against |
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Multiculturalism has created isolated ethnic and religious enclaves.Sydney suburbs like Bankstown and Lakemba, home to substantial Lebanese Muslim populations, are prime examples of hotspots where ethnic communities have chosen to isolate themselves from the mainstream, instead of participating in society and being committed to Australia. Community leaders foster values incompatible with fundamental principles of Australian society – for example, promoting intolerance toward other faiths and expressing objectionable views about women. Some ethnic minorities have not fully accepted Australia’s basic values and norms.Multiculturalism relies on everyone accepting a basic set of core norms and principles, but this is not occurring for some. For instance, while most Muslims may live peacefully in Australian society, the violent protests in Sydney showed that some members of the Muslim community still cannot or are unwilling to observe accepted norms of behaviour or appropriate types of political expression. They resort instead to anti-social behaviour that intimidates those with views different to their own. Multiculturalism has degraded Australia’s culture and national identity.Multiculturalism has privileged the maintenance of distinct cultural and ethnic affiliations instead of promoting a common Australian identity with its shared history, values, symbols and institutions. This has fractured Australian’s national identity by emphasising what divides us rather than what we have in common. Multiculturalism has led to friction and violence.Violent flare-ups like the 2005 Cronulla riots and attacks against Indian students in 2009 highlight the fragility of Australia’s social harmony. Tensions between different groups are increasingly coming to the surface in similar ways to what has been observed in western European countries. More broadly, members of ethnic minorities continue to experience racism on an everyday basis. |
Migrants are highly integrated in Australian society.Immigrants and their offspring have integrated quickly into Australia’s society and economy. Research shows that almost all second-generation Australians are proficient in English, irrespective of their parents’ English ability, which has enabled them to find their way in Australian society and gain employment. This sets Australia apart from countries like Germany, where guest workers were brought in without a serious effort to include them in wider society. The overwhelming majority of Australians coexist peacefully and respectfully.Despite ongoing fears of outbreaks of racially-charged violence – most notably the fear of another “Cronulla” – the reality is that major cases of racist violence remain rare. There is, moreover, a widespread political and societal consensus that opposes racism in all its forms. The vast majority of Australians, regardless of their ethnic or cultural identity, live harmoniously with each other. Racial and ethnic tensions have been driven by unrepresentative fringe elements.Violence or aggression on ethnic and religious grounds remains restricted to a small number of people who are unrepresentative of their communities as a whole, and as such does not reflect a fundamental problem in multiculturalism. For instance, Muslim community leaders and ordinary Muslim Australians immediately and emphatically condemned the recent outbreak of violence in Sydney in response to an anti-Islamic internet video. The problems with multiculturalism show that it is a work in progress, not that it is failing.It is true that migrants from some backgrounds have found it more difficult to integrate and to accept Australia’s fundamental values and principles. However, this is a natural consequence of the transition from illiberal, autocratic societies to an open liberal democracy; such problems are not insoluble or permanent, and will decline in importance as new migrant communities adapt to Australian society. |
See also:
- Cameron is right, and multiculturalism has failed by Andrew Bolt
- How I lost faith in multiculturalism by Greg Sheridan
- Multiculturalism still has a long road to travel to reach all by Gerard Henderson
- Multiculturalism: a principled work in progress by Mungo MacCallum
- Muslim unrest doesn’t denote cultural crisis by Tim Soutphommasane
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FOR (7)
Multiculturalism in Australia, like our immigration policy discourse over many decades is in need of being facilitated with the political integrated participation in Australian society. I give due credit to the enjoyment and interaction with a huge range of genuine cultural experiences in my Melbourne community, apart from coming into contact with a lot of beautiful people running shops, small businesses, restaurants, community based organisations. But what we clearly miss, and this has been the experience since the end of the white Australia policy in the early seventies, is the lacking integrated and representative approach to encouraging and recruiting non-Anglo-Celtic Australians into our political representative and policy determinent processes. The same can be said in general about the short coming in our parliamentary process ostracising younger Australians from the political process. Our parliamentary participation and election process is geared up for inputs and manifestations by the traditonal two major parties and their elitist factional preselection process. Until our decison making forums are proportionately filled with representavis of multicultural values, Australia as a multicultural society is incomplete and doomed to fail.
I see multiculturalists argue all the time that we've had problems in the past but we've overcome them so there's nothing to worry about, it's all just a matter of time. I question whether this is the right mindset. The people who rioted in Sydney last week weren't people straight off the plane from Lebanon. They were second, third-generation Australians - exactly the kinds of people who multicultural supporters say should be integrating well and learning to accept our values. And they were out on the streets, committing violent acts, intimidating bystanders, and so on.
It's a truism to say that they're "just a minority". I know a majority of Muslims don't agree with the way the protesters expressed themselves. But if the minority is persistent, and if they are vocal enough, then that affects the whole fabric of our society - it's the bad apples thing. I don't think there's any evidence that we're getting rid of the bad apples with time. And I think that's a product of a situation where we've allowed these groups to hide away in their private communities and foster their own ideas about what's right and wrong.
I think it's also evasive for the "against" side to fire off all those usual cliches about how lovely it is to have different foods or different skin colours or different modes of dress. That's not what this issue is about, at least not as I think it. This issue isn't about whether you like going to Thai restaurants or shopping in Chinatown or grabbing falafels from the corner shop on the way home. This issue is about social integration and acceptance of the values we have in Australia. This issue is about mistreatment of women, groups of youths clashing with each other because of racial/ethnic issues, and text messages being sent to incite violence against non-believers. Multiculturalism is failing badly in that regard.
You're right that many of the people involved in the protests are 2nd or 3rd generation, but many of them are actually more extreme than their parents. That their parents have more or less successfully integrated, but that the children have gone in the other direction suggests that something very different from a failure of multiculturalism is going on here. Radicalisation is probably hyperbole when you consider what is happening in the rest of the world, but I'd encourage you to read up on how people become radicalised (hint: the attitudes and opportunities of the society that they're in play a fairly decent role).
The fact that the 2nd/3rd generation may actually be doing worse than their parents actually supports the notion that there is something seriously wrong with multiculturalism in Australia. Time and time again we hear arguments that violence or tension is a temporary problem caused by people arriving from different cultures. This suggests that as we move down the generations, the children and grandchildren of migrants should be better integrated than their parents, not worse. Several people have made a variation of this argument on the right-hand side of this page. If on the other hand they are feeling more and more separated from mainstream Australian society, then that's a failure of multiculturalism, because it was multiculturalism that was supposed to bring them into society - instead, they prefer to retreat into their enclosed communities.
I just want to point out that because one group (Muslims) with a particularly alien set of values (in my opinion) is having more than usual difficulty integrating with the Australian community, it does not mean multiculturalism as a whole has failed. We have many other groups who have integrated just fine.
I still think Muslims will eventually integrate as well, once we sort out the disconnect between Western values and Islamic values (this is possible, moderate Muslims are an example, as is the country of Turkey up to a point), and the current extranational stressors (ie. War on Terror) are resolved. Also as they (hopefully) become more secular.
The whole concept of Multiculturalism although intrinsicly reasonable has been subverted by both the power brokers who forced it upon us and the various races who after arriving here only bring their hatred, anger, loww morals and ethics to the table. I have personnally experienced many cultures 9although recently its the middle eastern groups including Israelis) demonstrate intolrerance,unbridled anger and resentment. They cling to olkd issues such as the concentration camps etc and weild this like a shield to justify whatever they feel like doing. Just today a middle eastern male purposely squeezed into a parking spot I was backing into and then tried to smash my window when I pointed out he was being unreasonable. Its always instant and complete violence as a response. I for one am sick of being a prisoner in my own country . This is the 1st forum i have ever found to enable me to aire my opinion. Stop ALL immigration we are saturated with the worlds troubles and people who have done nothing to evolve themselves but insist we accommodate them and their insults.
Multiculturism is failing because too many of the wrong ethnic specifics are brought in for the wrong reasons. Migrants or refugees must demonstrate that they are prepared to adopt or try to adopt the Australian way of life. Most immigrants who have been here a long time have for most of them settled in quite well. However there are certain ethnic groups who have a mindset that they would rather try and change us. Too many of the lesser educated hothead types from isolated areas brought up in violent societies will attempt to take out their disatisfaction on us. We need to revisit the time of immigration in Australia to review the guidelines we should be using to select those who propose a better chance for integration
Multiculturalism is currently failing in Australia because not enough of our community and political leaders are making public statements to explain exactly what is expected of new arrivals to Australia in order to meet our multicultural policy expectations.
This is I think true in part, though I believe there is much more to the issue than this
The problem is blind political correctness. We dont need to take all, and accept all. Lets be selective, and demanding. We already are a bit, we just cant be open about it.
Hmmm. That's a slippery slope - who decides what is a 'good' culture and what is not? I think that all previous migration waves would have had people saying that a specific culture was not 'good', and most of those prior immigrants are now happy and integrated Australians. I think we should just continue to maintain the level of slectivity/demand that we currently have, until and unless we can get a clear fix on whether we are getting truly unreasonable problems from a specific group - and a bit of showy extremist rioting and value-based disagreement with Muslims (I presume this is the group you are referring to at this time) is not sufficient to close the door to them (particularly since it would also, quite justifiably, radicalise those that are already here).
It's cos of this MULTICULTURALISM that our governments etc seem to be pandering towards the smaller minorities & over weekend, there was a crackdown on antiIslamic messages posted on social media, why wasn't there also a crackdown on anyone posting antiWestern messages? How much more do we need to pander to these small minorities, it's maddening enough as is with all this political correctness BS.
AGAINST (21)
Many have argued that multiculturalism is necessary in a liberal democracy. If you don't have multiculturalism it means that liberal democratic rights are only extended to the majority population. The right to freedom of speech, assembly and protest are highly important in a liberal democracy.
Far from demonstrating failure of multiculturalism, the recent protests show its success. Individuals could come and express their opinion (regardless of whether you agree with it or now) in a public forum, just as any other Australian can. That they turned violent is no more a reflection on the success or failure of multiculturalism than any protest turned violent evidence for anything other than the ability of a few jerks to cause trouble.
However just because multiculturalism has succeeded doesn't mean that racism doesn't still exist or isn't a major problem. It also doesn't mean that a small minority of community leaders (whether they be Muslim, Catholic, Christian or atheist) don't "foster values incompatible with fundamental principles of Australian society – for example, promoting intolerance toward other faiths and expressing objectionable views about women".
That's a different project - and just as necessary as multiculturalism.
By any reasonable standard, Australian multiculturalism has been a remarkable success. A society which was rather xenophobic and inclined to see itself as "white Australia" in an alien Asian region only a generation or two ago, has become a cosmopolitan, outward looking and thriving society with many strands. The problems at the margin need to be addressed, but they are teething problems, not signs of failure. And the biggest single problem is plainly the global push by radical Islamists to press sharia law and uncritical acceptance of Islam into liberal democracies. We need to address that challenge, but not to give up on multiculturalism because of it.
I think that the biggest problem is the perception amongst the rest of the community that there is 'a global push by radical Islamists to press sharia law and uncritical acceptance of Islam into liberal democracies'; the general lack of understanding of Muslim communities (e.g. sharia law is mostly about religious practise for Muslims: how often and where you need to pray, what you can and can't eat etc.) and that this understanding is generally negative (as opposed to more innocuous stereotypes, e.g. Asians are very smart and work hard at school and Italians like covering their yards with concrete).
In the red corner we have.... "What Actually Happens in Australia 99.9% of the Time"
And in the blue corner we have: "What Gets Reported in the Media when there's a Shit Storm".
So how about we start with facts: Lowest crime rates in the world; inter-cultural marriages and, yes, breeding; thousands of different coloured faces and backgrounds in every office and school in the country (go on, look around you); new ideas and skills from around the world; new cultures and music from around the world; Chinese food; Ethiopian food; Greek food; Italian food (you get the picture)...
In fact, I'd even say that in the history of the world we have rarely had a society where people from all corners of the globe spend time in each others pockets (aka cities) and, well, generally get along.
I guess we need to address the so-called "Muslim Rage" so how about we stick with this little bit of truth: dickheads will be dickheads.
Whether it’s an idiot with a sign calling for a beheading (as we saw last week) or a radio announcer calling for the Prime Minister to be put in a bag and killed (as we heard from Alan Jones and his “chaff bag” comments) or fools in Cronulla chanting “bash a leb” or one of the thousands of Australians who physically or emotionally abusing their partner.
Black, white, yellow, brown, mixture – dickheads are dickheads, regardless of whether they are carrying out dickhead behaviour in the name of race, religion, politics or sport.
In the meantime the 99.9% of us will continue to get along, marry each other, explore different cultures and foods, learn and grow.
The fact that from time to time there are problems in race relations does not mean that an entire policy and its practice is failing. It is usual that a breakdown in relations is precipitated by particular events and when the impetus dies down, peaceful relations are restored- at least in the public arena- although this doesnt mean that everybody's happy. We live in a complex, pluralistic society which mostly works.
Any wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about whether multiculturalism is working on account of a small protest two weeks ago with a violent element that was readily managed by the NSW police is absurd. Social friction of this sort would exist in even an all-white Australia. The following are examples of what I would be looking for as evidence that multiculturalism is failing or has failed. The question is, do we see these problems at all, or in sufficient quantity, to be alarmed in this regard? I think not!
1) Regular protest marches (eg weekly, fortnightly, monthly) organised by non-white ethnic groups and attended only by non-white ethnic groups in response to claims and accusations of systematic mistreatment. 2) Many such protest marches turning violent with attacks against the physical symbols of Australian democracy and society (the parliament, the courts, police stations, schools, etc, etc). 3) Frequent and systematic bashings and murders of one or more non-white ethnic groups by whites (or vice versa). 4) Serious social problems endemic within non-white ethnic groups that are never or seldom experienced by white ethnic groups.
Postscript: On Item 4, its probably fair to say that this is true of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups. And so, they could rightly claim that their experiment with multiculturalism has failed miserably!
I'm not saying that the "against" side has absolutely no merit in this debate, but this seems to be a case of setting yourself a low threshold in this debate. If I have this right, nothing short of frequent and regular outbreaks of anarchic violence on the streets, with neo-Nazi skinhead gangs roaming the streets summarily executing people of foreign appearance, would even start to persuade you that multiculturalism was failing?
Certainly the scenario that you describe paulc would probably be evidence enough to suggest that multiculturalism has failed. The fact that we enjoy the polar opposite of that suggests that it is succeeding.
Australia is the closest reality to multiculturalism that I have experienced. Whilst there is much that could be done to improve the assimilation of migrants into the Australian way of life, I believe it is on the right track and requires one step at a time towards the ideal. what does need to happen in the short term to assist this process is Australia needs to define what it wants to be from a moral and ethics stand point because if we allow migrants to dictate their morals and ethics on Australia, we could end up with something that has failed. I believe we need to draw from the positives of different cultures and combine those morals and ethics into a culture that is Australian. I belive we need to be more accepting rather than tolerant of others.
In 1959, English philosopher made two important comments for future generations. On an intellectual level, he said only consider the facts when judging a matter. On a moral level, love is wise, hatred is foolish. (http://www.upworthy.com/this-speech-is-the-reason-my-time-machine-is-permanently-set-to-1959?c=upw1). The facts of this are that a tiny minority of Australia's Moslem population enjoy protest. About the same numbers, I suspect, as the Nazis in Australia who enjoy a good fight. The moral argument is that love is wise, hatred is foolish and that love must prevail if we are to survive as a species. Multiculturalism involves the integration of people from many vastly differing backgrounds. In the past, this has strengthened our beautiful country. And that integration will not be perfected in our lifetimes. But it will at least be started. Yes, a few people with radical Islamic views to make be uncomfortable. But no more so than listening to Gerard Henderson. Our racial vilification laws can deal equally with those who preach violence, either good old 5th generation Anglo Aussies or those relative newcomers who suggest the beheading of non Moslems. The fact that these isolated incidents receive so much publicity is precisely because they are so rare.
If you applied the "for" arguments to "non-multicultural Australia" whatever that is, you would reach the conclusion that it is failing too, independent of any policy on multiculturalism. "Riots, drunkenness, no respect for the language and culture of the original inhabitants..."
In reality, Australia has ALWAYS been multicultural. Even the first Australians had different tribes and cultures - who sometimes got on and co-operated, and at other times behaved like those "ethnic enclaves" in Lakemba.
Every wave of settlement since then has had similar problems, similar fearmongering and similar calls for sanity.
Multicultural Australia might have problems, but consider the alternatives.
In some locations within Australia, multiculturalism has succeeded. A friendship group may consist of many races. Ethnic groups aren't overlooked for employment due to their accents. The diversity of cultures and beliefs is celebrated. In other places, racism is still rife and people won't mingle outside of their culture/ethnicity for fear of persecution. But we're heading in the right direction, and thus I say multiculturalism hasn't failed in Australia, but it still has a way to go.
Surely a Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander community is the only alternative that Australia could consider. We cannot compare our situation and alternatives with England, France and Germany who have a large indigenous population. We are a nation of immigrants, and multi-culturalism is the inevitable outcome of that. The policy of Multi-culturalism was only about accepting the undeniable truth.
Multiculturalism has not failed. If anything it has made the country far stronger and more diverse. Diversity is strength and flexibility - monocultures tend to not be adaptable.
Currently we are having some issues with Muslims, but these kind of teething issues are common enough when you get a new wave of migrants moving into the country (we've had various yellow peril phases, and once people were claiming there were too many Greeks and Italians). I'll grant the Muslim issue may be a bit worse than normal since there seem to be certain incompatibilities between their religious beliefs and values and those of 'traditional' Christian/Humanist Australia, as well as a general sense of struggle between the West and Middle Eastern cultures which is stirring things up. There also seems to be a greater (or just louder and more violent?) number of Muslim extremists for some reason, though I think they are still very few relative to the majority - Aljazeera and Sky news claim between 0.001% and 0.007% (respectively) of Muslims worldwide are responsible for the current trouble relating to that 'Innocence of Muslims' film.
Remember - the extremists want us to react. They want us to crack down on Muslims generally and unfairly and thus make moderate Muslims radical. They want to build hate. Let's not play into that. We should prosecute any troublemakers with the full force of the law, and let peaceful Muslims go about their business.
I really think it will all come out in the wash as time goes by, assuming we don't do anything silly like grant Shariah law any legal standing - where a real conflict of values and laws exists immigrants must adapt to Australian values, culture and law, not Australia to migrants.
In the immediate case, it would be very beneficial if moderate Muslim leaders made a real attempt to try and offset their more extremist counterparts in the public eye.
As others have said, small scale violence is not a reason to overturn 30 years of immigration policy, given the benefits to Australia in terms of culture and trade. I would change my mind if given good evidence that the trend in violence is likely to increase and that the best way to combat such a trend is through immigration policy.
The aims of multicultural policy are worth championing. In order for multiculturalism to be successful, it requires all Australians to live up to the ideals as expressed through its aims. There are some in our community who may not live up to these ideals (this may even be despite the fact that they directly benefit from the policy). There are many more who are grateful, and work hard to make a positive contribution to Australian society. The success or failure of multicultural policy depends on us.
I consider that the reduction in Islamic protest will only be achieved by patience on the part of existing Australians and a concerted push by the moderate Mullahs to show the noisy protesters that they are wrong to shout and brandish placards like the fools they are. In any other migrants group, the second generation is the one which assimilates - the original migrants often never learn English language, for not ebveryone has theability to handle a new lingo
Anyone one who assumed a simple declaration that we are now all multicultural and therefore the proverbial sun would shine forever would surely at the time have been considered simple-minded; and similarly anyone now who says the occasional disruption by extremists or the plainly unreconstructed means that multiculturalism has failed... is also being simplistic.
Multiculturalism is a grownup approach to handling societies that are increasingly made up many demographics. In fact, I blanch at what might be the alternative - humiliation, revilement, repression of anyone different from ourselves? Would this help? I must assume that that is not what is being proposed by those who claim the policy should be dumped, but I fail to see what possible alternative there could be to respect and inclusion, in any society that prides itself on democratic practice and, well... respect and inclusion.
The unrest at Cronulla suggested to me that more work needs to be done to work through in the community the kind of fear and resentment that leads to xenophobia - and this is done best through multicultural policies. i would contend that Cronulla-type attitudes owe a lot to the kind of nationalistic, anglo-centric policies of the Howard years.
Similarly, it is patently obvious that the extremists at the socalled Islamic riots in Sydney suffer from resentments built up over many years of often racist jibes and differences, as well as some cultural differences. These problems, also obviously, will not be best approached by activities that inflame resentment. They were very well confronted, indeed and in the spirit of multiculturalism, by the leaders of those communities themselves, calling on hot-heads to recognise the practices of the country they live in, Australia.
Enough of this nonsense.
Multiculturalism brings new opportunities from the globe this is the fact why we have to accept besides other good reasons. Always easy to share and live with own family once start sharing and living with neighbours things will be complex benefits could be more. We like it or not this issue never go away, we only have learn how to live in this multicultural socity.
Early Years Frame (EYLF) a frame work for childcare centres, which we already see this issue incorporated into the curriculum to give awareness to our younger generation. Same as we all should learn how to share and how to live with our neighbours to enjoy the benefits.
Thank God, or Allah if you wish, that we have intelligence services that can keep a watch on the fringe elements whether recent immigrants or old-time Australians who have an axe to grind. Most of the community want to co-exist with their neighbours, to allow each group to enjoy their cultural differences and also to share in the benefits of them. What a narrow-minded shallow lot we would be without all the diversity of backgrounds we share.Welcome to all geniune refugees and migrants who wish to live in this free country. However, please, repeat please leave your conflicts and extreme views back where you come from.
If Multiculturalism had "failed" we would not continue to have inter racial marriages/partnerships. No one nowadays think Greeks and Italians are not integrated, it just takes 2-3 generations for a merged culture to develop. In Australia we do not have static culture it has always been developing and should continue to, some cultures in the middle east are stagnant and that's half their problem
We're currently in the third generation of Lebanese Australians who arrived here around the 1970s. The violence in Sydney and the ongoing problems in suburbs like Lakemba show that far from developing a "merged culture", the distance is just as big as ever, if not bigger than ever. I realise that I am not advocating a popular position on this decidedly left-of-centre site, but how many more "generations" of this can we expect?
My experience shows that a multicultural Australia has been a great success. Many people from other cultures, including asylum seekers an refugees have made wonderful contributions to Australian society and culture. There is a richness in Australian culture that would have not been there otherwise.
Over this year, I have noticed a groundswell of acceptance and encouragement of a diverse Australian society. This is something that is enriching us all. However, we must not assume it will all just happen. All Australians must work to ensure that we continue to develop as a an example for our whole planet, that we can all develop a mutual respect for our differences an celebrate our similarities.
Come Australia, we can do it!
In any group there exists a range of people, good, bad and in-between. Migrants are no different. The only reason that migrants who cause difficulties appear on the public radar is because they look different. Anglo Australians behave badly but we notice them less because they are more familiar, and because the media gives them less atention. I love the diversity in Australia. I love seeing people of different ethnic origins, I love meeting them and I love socialising with them. Diversity enriches my life and I believe it enriches Australia.
Multiculturalism by any stretch of the imagination can only be depicted as a resounding success in Australia. Whilst the popular press appears to be pushing an agenda of focusing on radical fringe elements of the Islamic communities in Australia it might well be time take a step back and consider the overwhelming successes of multiculturalism has brought to Australia for the benefit of all Australians. As Mungo MacCallum (ABC “The Drum”) puts it “multiculturalism may have its glitches” but these glitches should not be the catalyst to “panic and reverse policy”. In essence multiculturalism is a work in progress, continuing to develop, essentially in dynamic flux.
Supporting this view Frank Lowy In a recent lecture delivered to the Australian Multicultural Council puts forward multiculturalism is substantially a “triumph in tolerance” (ABC News). Lowy goes on to postulate that migrants should follow Australian values as “you are welcome; free to worship; you are free to honour your heritage; and we will respect to differences between us” adding that in return [migrants]”should agree to live by the standards and values of this society [Australia]the one you have chosen to be part of”. These views are congruent with the ideals of the National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia (Department of Immigration and Citizenship) identified as dimensions of cultural identity, social justice and economic efficiency.
By and large this has led to a successful integration of immigration, ergo multiculturalism, in Australia. The success of migration for the Snowy Mountain Scheme is well known. Other examples include the cultural precincts, rather than ‘enclaves’, of Melbourne and the Inner West of Sydney. These communities have influenced our culinary repertoire, design style and approach to community building at a social, cultural, environmental and economic level. In this context, the cultural precincts of Chinatown, Lonsdale Greek Precinct and Lygon Street are an embodiment of cosmopolitan lifestyle. They offer rich cultural diversity to the Australian society.
... "We are one, but We are many, and from all the lands on Earth we come...I am, You are, We are Australian"