Australian Multiculturalism and Immigration Essay Example
Multiculturalism is a term used within a number of different contexts and thus can greatly vary in terms of its meaning. In the context of Australian political history however, ‘Multiculturalism’ can be viewed as a national ideology- a policy and framework that has guided and strengthened the cultural development of a unique Island Nation. Designed to embrace and promote unity amongst diversity, Australian Multiculturalism seeks to ensure that all Australians are simultaneously assured the right to maintain their culture, whilst committing to their responsibilities of accepting others and obeying the Australian law.
Therefore, Australian Multiculturalism is a unique, strategic construction of a rhetoric that illustrates the capacity of one nation to absorb and utilise cultural differences. It is not a melting pot, but a community that unties on a common basis of diversity and an underlying cohesion under the one set of common values.
In his statement in the Sydney Morning Herald 2002 (see appendix a), Hugh McKay illustrates how the development of this unique multicultural society has recursively created tension between the desire to expand and the need to ‘protect’ from invasion. The deep anxiety that accompanies the efforts to maintain this delicate balance has developed a belief of the need of strict protection, law and order as well as a bipartisan consensus amongst all major political parties surrounding immigration and national security.
Australia’s Immigration policy was initially established off two main driving forces- a need to industrialise and a need to populate. Initially Immigration policy was largely a derivative of racial prejudice, supporting ‘White supremacy’ and the creation of a solely British Society. Such ideologies were formalised through the ‘White Australia Policy’, the Immigration Restriction Act (1901) and the underpinning philosophy of Assimilation.
This initial philosophy described that that anything foreign or
Therefore, Australian Multiculturalism is a unique, strategic construction of a rhetoric that illustrates the capacity of one nation to absorb and utilise cultural differences. It is not a melting pot, but a community that unties on a common basis of diversity and an underlying cohesion under the one set of common values.
In his statement in the Sydney Morning Herald 2002 (see appendix a), Hugh McKay illustrates how the development of this unique multicultural society has recursively created tension between the desire to expand and the need to ‘protect’ from invasion. The deep anxiety that accompanies the efforts to maintain this delicate balance has developed a belief of the need of strict protection, law and order as well as a bipartisan consensus amongst all major political parties surrounding immigration and national security.
Australia’s Immigration policy was initially established off two main driving forces- a need to industrialise and a need to populate. Initially Immigration policy was largely a derivative of racial prejudice, supporting ‘White supremacy’ and the creation of a solely British Society. Such ideologies were formalised through the ‘White Australia Policy’, the Immigration Restriction Act (1901) and the underpinning philosophy of Assimilation.
This initial philosophy described that that anything foreign or