Multiculturalising at the interface of policy and practice

Martina Boese, Melissa Phillips

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Multiculturalism as a contemporary policy framework and practice has been the subject of sustained criticism and debate. Our research on the resettlement experiences of newly arrived migrants and refugees shows how Australian multiculturalism has become a limited symbolic cultural space where “ethnic Others” are permitted to perform their minority ethnicity to the white ethnic majority group. We argue that the official and public meanings of multiculturalism today remain constrained by its past, specifically the historical legacy of White Australia and the contested but still entrenched remnants of the pressure to “assimilation”. As a result, new arrivals and existing cultural Others are expected to gradually “blend in” – a euphemism that in effect, veils a form of cultural assimilation. Based on our recent research findings we argue that such a process occurs however alongside emerging practices of active, reciprocal and ongoing cultural, political and social exchange within and between all diverse communities of Australia. We term this more transformational form of multiculturalism as “multiculturalising”. This notion points to a multi-layered and ongoing process of engagement and negotiation that involves new arrivals and long term residents alike and seeks to encapsulate some of the ways in which multiculturalism operates across a variety of public and private settings in Australia.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCultural, Religious and Political Contestations: The Multicultural Challenge
EditorsFethi Mansouri
Place of PublicationSwitzerland
PublisherSpringer
Pages205-222
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9783319160030
ISBN (Print)9783319160023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Australia
  • immigrants
  • multiculturalism

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