Migration and Cultural Pluralism Melange Research Proposal

The argument that racial, ethnic and religious prejudices have long sustained problematic social hierarchies has precipitated a type of multiculturalism that is designed to compensate those who are not of the hegemonic culture. In Australia, the article by James (1998) argues, this is producing a social and political backlash that has actually been to the detriment of its immigrant population and its cultural identity in simultaneity.

According to the article by James, the era of multiculturalism would lead to a sentiment toward greater Australian nationalism amongst those who felt that this effort was both eroding Australia's cultural identity and diminishing the rights of those historical tied to said identity. In one account, James notes that multiculturalism has led to a policy of "treating all persons from non-English-speaking backgrounds as officially 'disadvantaged' and hence entitled to special treatment regardless of actual need. Equally important, in my judgement, is the way multiculuralism has seemed to question the status of the established culture of the country." (James, 15)

The article goes on to argue that the political imperative to avoid an apparent endorsement of this erosion of identity has led to both an implicit avoidance of the term 'multiculturalism' and a more hardline policy against what had previously been a healthy influx of immigrants from throughout the region. The lesser embrace of others is promoting a more ethnocentric assertion of identity in Australia that, in its defensiveness, is creating a society less hospitable to differences of ethnicity, religion, language and culture than in a prior generations.

James ultimately takes the enlightened position that the backlash against multiculturalism is an outcome of the politicization of cultural issues. The efforts put forth by the Australian government to both define at first and to defend against thereafter the incidences of multiculturalism, have been poorly suited to a reality of necessary cultural pluralism. James contends to a persuasive end that Australian….....