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Auditing Multiculturalism - the Australian empire a generation after Galbally Andrew Jakubowicz Professor of Sociology, University of Technology Sydney Address to FECCA Annual Conference December 4 2003 Melbourne
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Multiculturalism Is the Australian Way of Life? The term 'Australian multiculturalism' could be redundant in 25 years as more and more Australians adopt it as a way of life, the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Gary Hardgrave, said (July 2003) “There was also mention of coolness towards multiculturalism, which I have always considered a careless use of the wrong word - multi-ethnicity being the right one…” Frank Devine on what attracts him to Mark Latham Dec 2003 “Australia is not a multicultural society…. It is a multiracial monocultural one…!”
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Reflecting on Multiculturalism Multiculturalism became a way of framing Australian modernity Governments had to deal with the reality of globalisation - trans-border movement of capital, culture and people, upon which Australia is critically dependent in a competitive market place.
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Multiculturalism has been an attempt to deal with two dimensions of Australia as a modern ‘empire’ in globalisation: external: defense against competing empires, and internal: subjugation and ‘normalisation’ of diverse population (the mirror of disability policies)
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Aims of this presentation What can an audit do? There are no set criteria or standards, so controversy is a valuable methodology Focus on the Federal sphere - try to frame process and explain apparent contradictions Identify critical moments, high and low points, in policy development and change since 1978 Identify outcomes after 25 years Distinguish between rhetoric and reality Identify explicit and implicit trajectories for next decade
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What sorts of criteria are relevant to Audit? Outcome focused: Social Power - governments, courts, key social and economic institutions Economic - equal opportunity, economic inequality not linked to ethnicity Inclusion - employment, media, sport, civil society Symbolic - legislative, expressive, creative Cohesion - education, crime, segregation, attitudes
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The Strategic Crossroads of 1978 Assimilation - focus government policy on integrating immigrants as individuals into the social fabric regard ethnic cultural practices as residual and declining regard ethnic cultural maintenance as problematic and not supported by government unproblematic sense of core Australian culture
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to Ethnic Rights recognise communal nature of ethnicity and assign rights based on ascriptive criteria (either voluntary or compulsory) regard nation as both culturally and structurally pluralistic commit social resources to maintenance of communal cultures and delivery of services through ethnic structures reconceptualise nation as composed of cultural minority groups recognised in law
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to Multiculturalism identify tension between national cohesion, communal identification and individual rights seek balance between mainstream services responding to general needs and ethnic services providing culturally- responsive programs use multiculturalism to assert national core values and allegiances while recognising value of diversity in relation to identity and communal support. But what does “multiculturalism” mean? And to whom?
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Government approaches to Cultural Diversity in Australia 1978 Multiculturalism A (Galbally/Georgiou) - Services to Immigrants against the resistance of mainstream 1984 Access and Equity/ Mainstreaming 1989 Multiculturalism B - Social Justice and National Cohesion 1993 Multiculturalism C - Productive Diversity 1995 Global Diversity 1996 One Nation 1998 Australian Multiculturalism- Roach/Sinodinos 2004 The Multicultural marketplace - Government achievements make no mention of multiculturalism; ALP has no policy…
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Administrative Orientations Legislating for individual rights - the Anti Discrimination pathway Legislating for cultural rights - the Multicultural/Ethnic Affairs pathway The charter of service approach - focusing on bureaucracy and delivery to clients The crises of ethnicity - what is multicultural citizenship?
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The moral basis of Australian multiculturalism Hierarchy of cultures Hierarchy of religions Capitalist Patriarchal (just look at federal cabinet and the high court)
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The Old Ethnicities and social power 1996 - the Irish Catholic ascendancy Paul Keating PM William Deane GG Gerard Brennan CJ 2001/3 - the English Protestant reassertion John Howard PM Peter Hollingworth/ Gen Jeffery GG (tho Celtic presence remains with) Murray Gleeson CJ
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Harmony… “National research has confirmed that the overwhelming majority of Australians genuinely respect and value the diverse make-up of our community and support the concepts on which the [Harmony] initiative is based.” (DIMIA Website) This statement may refer to SBS research for marketing -or it may disguise the secret government research showing hostility to diversity - but does endorse government decisions to abandon support for ethnic diversity, and target local inter-group collaboration. The latest word from the Minister’s Office is that the 1996/7 research was a working paper and that they intend to carry out new research… maybe
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Major Achievements Multicultural institutions - SBS, HREOC, DIMIA, Living in harmony, Partnerships, Productive diversity Dual citizenship Charter for public service Racial discrimination and vilification legislation Arts for a Multicultural Australia
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Significant failures Govt does not recognise multicultural Australia as a policy success ALP has no policy on multiculturalism No national product champion for Multiculturalism No Bill of Rights No Multiculturalism Act (cf Canada) No Affirmative Action (cf Women) No national ‘knowledge creation’ about cultural diversity Monocultural Cabinet (0/17) Monocultural High Court (0/7) Moncultural ABC (0/7 govt. appointees, but one Indigenous))
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Manifest and Latent Trajectories of National Policy Manifest: celebrate cultural collaborations; assert national social priorities; assert cohesive national identity; foreground economic profitability; marketise services; recruit ethnic leadership into ‘B list’ elites
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Latent: reinforce traditional cultural hierarchies; isolate Australia from global civil society; build culture of secrecy and fear; reduce human rights; reduce services and service quality; force greater use of voluntary female labour; intensify exclusion and urban segregation; intensify underclass.
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Conclusion As we have been many times before, we are at a time of decision The Audit suggests two possible agendas: Move towards passive alienated monocultural-dominated quiescence Move towards active respectful multicultural citizenship
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