Has multiculturalism become a dirty word?
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- Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 07:39:05 +0800
Has multiculturalism become a dirty word?
By Eugenia Levine and Vanessa Stevens - posted Friday, 22 June 2007 Sign Up for
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Prime Minister John Howard has adopted an unabashedly vocal stance regarding his
long-time preference for an assimilationist approach to migration and the
settlement of ethnic minorities in Australia.
Perceiving an apparently urgent need to protect our obscure Australian values
from outside invasion, the Howard Government has stressed the ?desirability of
more fully integrating newcomers into the mainstream of Australian society?.
John Howard appears to be celebrating the fact that ?we've drawn back from being
too obsessed with diversity? and that ?Australians are now better able to
appreciate the enduring values of the national character?. Suddenly, we are
being encouraged to embrace the ?one nation, one destiny? sentiment that we had
at Federation. The same sentiment that gave rise to the infamous White Australia
Policy we shamefully try to forget.
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In the heyday of the White Australia Policy, our first Prime Minister, Mr John
Barton, infamously warned against a horror day ?when the European observer will
look round to see the globe girdled with a continuous zone of black and yellow
races ? [who] will throng the English turf and the salons in Paris, and will be
admitted to inter-marriage ? in a world which we thought of as destined to
belong to the Aryan races and to the Christian faith?.
Now we are being once again urged to adopt a dominant value system which,
according to the Howard Government, includes ?Judeo-Christian ethics and the
values of British political culture?.
What lurkes poorly hidden beneath this nationalistic rhetoric is an unmistakable
push towards the adoption of essentially White, mainstream and politically safe
values in the name of patriotic Australianism.
With our not so distant past of racist and discriminatory policies in mind,
shouldn?t we be questioning the potentially dangerous and socially destructive
consequences of the proposed cultural assimilation approach? Before embarking on
such a path towards attempted social cohension, ought not we to look at the
experiences of other governments which shunned multiculturalism in favour of an
assimilisationist ideal?
Let us for instance consider France - the age-old proponent of nationalism.
France has implemented policies, which ring reminiscent of John Howard?s fervent
integration rhetoric. French policies have focused on unification under the
banner of common ?French values?. The French Government seems to have ignored
cultural and ethnic distinctions, expecting migrants to adhere to dominant ways
of being ?French? in order to participate in and be accepted into mainstream
society.
Dominant values. Mainstream society. The same phrases used by John Howard in his
speeches.
But the reality for French society has been quite different to the hoped-for
ideal of peaceful integration. Instead of creating a cohesive social fabric, the
French approach has led to increased separation of minority groups, heightening
strained ethnic relations and social isolation, and culminating in an outcry of
violence during the riots of 2005.
If anything, these riots painfully highlighted the limits of the assimilation
model. As Harvard University Associate Professor of Public Policy, Professor
Culpepper, commented on the riots, many people from ethnic minority groups do
not feel ?French? because ?they basically live an existence quite apart from
what most French people live, and they experience systematic discrimination ?
That is what?s driving this rage, this feeling that they are a society apart.?
Perhaps they live separately due to the fact French society does not accept
cultural difference as a valuable kind of difference, alienating ethnic
minorities to the margins of society under the guise of mono-culturalism and
national unity. In France, ?multiculturalism? has become a dirty word. A sense
of rejection, alienation and riots followed.
In Australia, until recent times, we have been a long way from the French
experience. Since moving away from the White Australia Policy, Australia has
been hailed as one of the world?s most cohesive and tolerant societies.
Multiculturalism and respect for ethnically different backgrounds has been both
celebrated and encouraged by governmental policies emphasising inclusiveness.
And we have been proud of this.
But what?s happening now? Where are we heading when we ask people from different
ethnic and cultural backgrounds to forcefully assimilate? Perhaps the French
example should alert us to the dangers of such a governmental policy. Forcing
people to adopt something as personal and deep-seated as a cultural identity is
paradoxical at best.
Speaking in terms of ?dominant cultural patterns? invariably overlooks the
reality: that Australia?s social fabric is not just British and Judeo-Christian,
but is in fact made up of many unique and valuable ethnic and cultural pieces.
People living in Australia today come from many different backgrounds and to
suppress these backgrounds may create division and excerbate the feeling of
difference and exclusion.
It?s as simple as human nature: supress something and people will feel
resentment. Deny us expression of our unique cultural identities and we will
hold on to feeling different and not to co-existing. So where does that lead us
- integration or segregation?
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Eugenia Levine (BA/LLB(Hons)) is a solicitor at a Melbourne firm and a legal
volunteer with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. Her work includes refugee law
and human rights.
Vanessa Stevens (BA/LLB(Hons)) is a Melbourne-based lawyer, who works both in
private practice and in pro bono law aimed at improving community and individual
access to social justice.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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