Shift From Multiculturalism To Citizenship In Australian Politics: An Analysis

The Political Outlook of Australia in the Last Two Decades

The focus of the essay is to understand the change in the political outlook of Australia in the last two decades concerning multiculturalism. In the last two decades, a marked shift has been witnessed in Australia where multiculturalism has been subtly overtaken by citizenship concerning the policies and the general political outlook. The Galbally report was presented in 1978, concerning the settlement, cultural changes and other essential aspects related to the arrival of new migrants and their welfare aspects (Ng and Metz 2015). However, in 1991 a new coalition government came to power with John Howard being elected as the Prime Minister (Blair 2015). He was much against multiculturalism from the beginning. The new government abolished many of the policies that were aimed towards providing greater empowerment and welfare to migrants. Since, then there has been a significantly evident shift from developing a multicultural identity of the nation to a citizenship oriented national progress motive. The essay analyses the notion that shift from multiculturalism to citizenship concerning the internal political outlook of the nation can be detrimental for the ethnically diverse Australian society.

The last two decades have witnessed the significant shift from multiculturalism to a more citizenship focused political environment. This has mainly been a resultant product of the international political environment and significantly the constant threat of international terrorism. Thus, it can be said that the shift from a multicultural to a citizenship oriented political stance has gained further support in the recent years. However, the major issue that has been identified is the feasibility of running a government based on citizenship focused nationalistic political values and the emergence of the new society that is multi-ethnic in nature. It has to be considered that immigrants from predominantly Britain and other European countries mainly formed the Australian society in the beginning. However, since the last few decades new immigrants started arriving from China, South-east Asia, Middle East and the Indian Sub-Continent. People from all kinds of cultural and ethnic backgrounds thus influence the Australian society. Political inclinations that strongly focus towards citizenship can prove to be difficult to endure in an increasingly multicultural society. The current population of Australia is around 24 million. Moreover, almost 90% of the population of the country is urban dwelling (Blair 2015). Around one-fourth of the population is actually from outside the country. Australian society is one of the most ethnically diverse in the world. The majorly urbanized society of the country also complements the notion of a cosmopolitan environment. However, the shift in the political opinion can cause a substantial portion of the population to lose their political representation and subsequently be marginalized. Additionally, Australia is home to a large number of indigenous people. Citizenship focused politics can also create confusion in regards to their representation and status in the country as citizenship motives often focus on the majority among the population of a country. The focus of the more citizenship based national political agenda is the stronger representation of Australians on European descent. Thus, it is evident that a rift between the European born and the predominantly Asian born or African born population can easily be created due to this. In the recent years, citizenship campaigns have focused more towards terrorism and insurgency. Stating them as main reasons behind supporting a lesser multicultural society the politicians have garnered much support for their causes. The post-World War II increase in population of the non-European migrants to Australia contributed towards making the country more ethnically diverse. However, the last two to three decades of citizenship inclinations have caused a confusing social environment in the country, Additionally, at the same time the immigration of non-Europeans to the country have increased causing further confusion in regards to the cultural stance of the government.  Recently, racial violence have been witnessed across many cities in Australia. In the wake of some terrorist attacks outside and within the country, there have been backlashes against mostly the Muslim community in the country. Few years back there were many reported incidents of violence against the South Asians in the country. Some of the acts of violence even led to the death of victims. Hence, in a multi-ethnic society like Australia, the implications of shifting away from multiculturalism need to be judiciously considered by the political classes before making any clear decision concerning their stance. Some important ethnic groups to be considered are the 3.6% ethnic Chinese and the 5.3% ethnic minorities that hail from other Asian and European countries (Ng and Metz 2015).

Reasons behind the Shift towards Citizenship-Focused Policies

In the early 1980s, the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs or AIMA was the organization that was vested with the responsibility of surveying, documenting, researching and publishing reports concerning the multi-ethnic situation in Australia (Vasta 2015). The organization was to provide reports in regards to the ethnic culture, living conditions and requirements of diverse ethnic groups. However as an organization AIMA failed to do its job properly and detailed reports about the ethnic minorities in the country were never produced (Robertson 2015). As a result, significant government programs or policies for the development of ethnic minorities did not take place. Moreover, the lack of information about the ethnically diverse Australian population meant that significant social gaps with regards to the acceptance of a multicultural society were created. This later gave rise to an emerging rift between multiculturalism and citizenship in the country. An environment of uncertainty was created in the minds of Australians in this period due to the lack of information in regards to the various ethnic minorities in the country. In 1986, the AIMA was abolished due to various factors rising from their incapability to function according to their designated roles and responsibilities. However, the main concern was the lack of any proper replacement of the organization by the government and the subsequent rise of citizenship oriented political agendas. The Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Equal Opportunity Commission did take significant steps towards defining newer strategies towards multiculturalism but were unable to make any significant headway. At the same time in the 1980s there were larger migrations from Asia and the Middle East to Australia (Iqbal 2018). The newer migrants were culturally much diverse from the previous European migrants. Thus, greater discontent rose among the exiting population of the country at this time concerning the position of the migrants. A committee was formed in order to address the effects of the new wave of migrations. The committee focused on the requirement for immediate revision of the existing immigration policies (Keddie 2014). As a reason they stated that the unclear definition of multiculturalism that was formed due to the incompetence of the previous government organizations could harm the social fabric that existed in the country at the time. According to the committee, Australians were not ready to accept the kind of multiculturalism that was proposed by various previous government bodies. They proposed changes in laws concerning immigration and multiculturalism that can be more easily acceptable among the public. Especially, there was a significant concern among the existing population about the commitment of the newly arriving migrants towards the integrity and development of the country (Keddie 2014). The subsequently formed multicultural policies did not directly segregate people in regards to ethnicity; however, it laid down that people of all ethnic backgrounds should give the interests of country prime importance. The 1990s were a period of further citizenship inclination of the country (Curley and Vandyk 2017). Government divisions for the establishment of multiculturalism like BIMPR and OMA were further abolished. The government at this time had John Howard as the Prime Minister. He was known for his strong criticism of multiculturalism in the country. Subsequently, the programs that were focused on the welfare of minorities such as the benefit for unemployment programs and the English learning programs for migrants (Kallio, Mills and Skelton 2016). The policies market a visible shift of the politics of the country to a more citizenship-oriented approach. Later on Pauline Hanson was inducted into the parliament in 1996 (Castles 2016). She was known to be against the policies that provided better opportunities to the Aboriginal Australians and migrants (Robertson 2015). In the early 21^st century the rising threat of terrorism in the wake of the attacks in New York and other places in the world gave rise to further consolidation of the citizenship oriented political agendas. The new citizenship policies and statement of the Australian Government focused more towards establishing national unity to ensure the security of the nation (Mendes 2017). It was during this time that a significant anti-Muslim sentiment was on the rise in the predominantly westernized societies of the world including Australia. In response many agencies were formed in the country for establishing better communication between Muslims and non-Muslim Australians (Iqbal 2018). The rise of radical Islamism was also witnessed in various parts of the country leading to the strengthening of the stance of forces against multiculturalism.

Implications of the Shift towards Citizenship for the Ethnically Diverse Australian Society

In the later part of the 2000s, there was a greater focus on national integration by the labour government of country (Marginson 2015). Issues of public safety and security often affect the perceptions of people concerning multiculturalism. The rising impact of terrorism in the Australian Society have contributed further towards the political shift towards citizenship-oriented nationalism. Issues such as racial prejudice, racial marginalization, religious extremism, religious representation and cultural assimilation still guide the dominant perspectives of Australians concerning multiculturalism (Pruitt 2016). However, at the same time the Australian society has continued to grow towards a culturally diverse environment. Currently there are people in Australia from around 200 language backgrounds (Robertson 2015). This means that if the current conditions of the country with regards to its multicultural aspects are considered the requirement for culturally inclusive political agendas have increased. In the recent past Australia has also witnessed a series of terrorist attacks that have contributed significantly towards racial and religious segregations (Dooley, Tait and Zabarjadi Sar 2016). It can be seen that on the one hand, the non-religious population is increasing and on the other hand, religious extremism is increasing with regards to some religions. For example- an ongoing debate about the implementation of Sharia law in Australia has garnered much controversy (Roose and Possamai 2015). It is important to understand that in a rapidly growing multi-ethnic nation like Australia, effective government policies should focus more towards preserving the multicultural aspects of the society. Moreover, citizenship focused political inclinations in the country are increasingly causing the rise of the far-right groups in the country (Walton et al., 2018). It is highly important that better government agencies are formed keeping in mind the shortcomings of the previously failed multicultural agencies. Better-informed and competent multicultural agencies are required that can strengthen the multicultural framework of the country. Moreover, it is much required that multicultural awareness is increased through the educational system of the country in order to improve the perception of the youth regarding multiculturalism (Pruitt 2016). The current scenario in regards to the issues faced concerning the impact of multiculturalism is focused more towards religious segregation. The present cultural segregations are mostly aimed towards the Muslim other. Religious centres are trying to bring forward dialogues that are more religious for effectively tackling various cultural challenges. The Australian government have slowly started shifting towards political ideologies that wholly support multiculturalism. Cultural understanding between communities can help to eradicate many of the underlying fears of the Australian population. Far right groups need to be discouraged through the government mechanisms (McAllister 2015).

In conclusion, it can be said that the politics of Australia has for a long time witnessed a marked shift from multiculturalism to citizenship. This has resulted in the abolition of many policies that might have contributed towards greater political representation of its ethnically diverse population. The previous policies have fuelled racial segregation that has even resulted in the outbreak of violence in many instances. It is also important to understand that the underlying fears of the Australian population have been represented through the political agendas of the various parties. The ethnic environment of the country has changed in the meantime with more people from diverse cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds entering the country. It is important to consider that a large number of also visit the country for further education. Creating an environment of cultural acceptance can help the students to have better futures. In all, citizenship focused politics should be backed by policies that strongly consider multicultural aspects of the Australian society. Greater political representation of all the ethnically diverse citizens can create an environment of greater security in the backdrop of the ongoing international terrorism threats.

References

Blair, K., 2015. Young adults’ attitudes towards multiculturalism in Australia: tensions between the multicultural state and the intercultural citizen. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 36(4), pp.431-449.

Castles, S., 2016. Rethinking Australian migration. Australian Geographer, 47(4), pp.391-398.

Curley, M. and Vandyk, K., 2017. The securitisation of migrant smuggling in Australia and its consequences for the Bali Process. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 71(1), pp.42-62.

Dooley, K., Tait, G. and Zabarjadi Sar, H., 2016. Refugee-themed picture books for ethical understanding in curriculum English. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 11(2), pp.95-108.

Iqbal, A., 2018. RESTRICTING IMMIGRANTS, COLONIAL INHERITANCE AND POLITICAL INTERESTS: AUSTRALIA’S CITIZENSHIP TEST UNDER THE HOWARD GOVERNMENT. JISPO: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, 8(1), pp.23-35.

Kallio, K.P., Mills, S. and Skelton, T. eds., 2016. Politics, citizenship and rights. Springer Reference.

Keddie, A., 2014. Australian multicultural policy: Social cohesion through a political conception of autonomy. Journal of sociology, 50(4), pp.408-421.

Marginson, S., 2015. Higher Education and Politics in Australia. International Higher Education, (25).

McAllister, I., 2015. The personalization of politics in Australia. Party politics, 21(3), pp.337-345.

Mendes, P., 2017. Australia’s welfare wars: The players, the politics and the ideologies. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 29(2), pp.145-148.

Ng, E.S. and Metz, I., 2015. Multiculturalism as a strategy for national competitiveness: The case for Canada and Australia. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), pp.253-266.

Pruitt, L.J., 2016. Multiculturalism at play: young people and citizenship in Australia. Journal of Youth Studies, 19(2), pp.269-285.

Robertson, S., 2015. Contractualization, depoliticization and the limits of solidarity: noncitizens in contemporary Australia. Citizenship studies, 19(8), pp.936-950.

Roose, J.M. and Possamai, A., 2015. Between rhetoric and reality: Shari’a and the shift towards neoliberal multiculturalism in Australia. In Cultural, religious and political contestations (pp. 91-105). Springer, Cham.

Vasta, E., 2015. Generations and Change: Affinities Old and New. In Social Transformation and Migration (pp. 283-297). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Walton, J., Priest, N., Kowal, E., White, F., Fox, B. and Paradies, Y., 2018. Whiteness and national identity: teacher discourses in Australian primary schools. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(1), pp.132-147.