Has multiculturalism become a dirty word?

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?