Cultural Diversity in Australia. Speakers of languages with high English proficiency include those spoken in countries where English is widely spoken and taught (South Africa, the Netherlands and Philippines). Culture can impact our perspectives, behaviour, how we interact in the world and our personal identities. Its about ensuring our institutions better reflect who we are. [9] I have offered a more detailed treatment of this in T Soutphommasane (2015), Im Not Racist But 40 Years of the Racial Discrimination Act, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney. An estimated 14.7% of Australian adults today are of Asian heritage, similar to the proportion of African-Americans in the US population. Of the 3.3 million migrants who came to Australia between 2006 and 2021, over one quarter (27.1%) were born in China or India. Clio has taught education courses at the college level and has a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. The ancestry variables provide a self-assessed measure of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, which, when used in conjunction with the persons and their parents' countries of birth, provides a good indication of the ethnic background of first and second generation Australians. The graph below shows that since 1971, the number of people in Australian born in England has only slightly increased. Thats the challenge of extremism. The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. For example, in 2014-15, the Australian Human Rights Commission finalised 405 complaints about racial discrimination. Of those who spoke English not well or not at all, 702,000 (80.4%) were born overseas, more than half of which (59.2%) arrived in Australia more than 10 years ago. Australia has been a stand-out economic performer for more than two decades, having enjoyed uninterrupted economic growth since 1991. Critics of multiculturalism believe it may promote more division than unity that it may prevent groups from being integrated into a common national culture and identity. Australian ancestry was the second most common ancestry overall, and the most common ancestry for third-plus generation Australians. [15] Australian Human Rights Commission (2015), Freedom from Discrimination: Report on the 40th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act, Australian Human Rights Commission, Sydney. The top 5 languages were: Nepali 95.5%, English 3.2%, Hindi 0.4%, Gujarati 0.1%, Tibetan 0.1%. The image that Australia wants to project of being the most successful multicultural country in the world is shattered by a simple look at Australias parliament. This bargain is embodied in the pledge an immigrant takes when they naturalise as an Australian citizen: I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey. In those four clauses we have writ the contract of citizenship in this country. 7.0%had an Indian-born father and a mother born elsewhere overseas. That is a constitution that is not fit for purpose anymore. 5.2%had a Nepalese-born father and a mother born elsewhere overseas. In any debate, though, it is important that we recognise some of the distinctive characteristics of the Australian multiculturalism. (c) Excludes people who did not state English language proficiency. A second challenge concerns the legal architecture of multiculturalism namely, the Racial Discrimination Act. Australian Journal of Political Science 46 (1): 87-103. Among the 87 religions reported by Indian-born Australians, the top three were Hinduism (51.0%), Sikhism (22.1%) and Western Catholic (9.6%). [7] See, e.g., Australian Government (2011), The People of Australia Australias Multicultural Policy, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. The alarming rise of far-right politics in the US and Europe further highlights how liberal tolerance is being challenged by extreme nationalism. The number of people born in these countries and living in Australia have increased substantially since 2016. That means we have a duty to call out racial vilification, hate speech and racist extremism whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head not only when its convenient, or easy, or outside of the electoral cycle. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. 65.3% were under 20 years of age. In 2021 almost three quarters (74.3%) of people who used Punjabi at home were born in India. There continues to be commentary, which suggests that section 18C stifles free speech by capturing conduct that is merely offensive. For example, only 17% of Italians ages 50 and older are supportive of increasing diversity, compared with 44% of 18- to 29-year-olds. Racism in Australia: The current state of play. The graph below shows how this has changed over time as economic, political, and social factors including wars and immigration policies have influenced Australias migration patterns. [5] Its not a case of immigrants remaining foreigners. Social Expectations Theory | What Are Social Expectations? The violent attacks targeting Muslims in Christchurch last Friday are a reminder of the need to continually fight against extreme racist views, according to University of Sydney experts. All rights reserved. Other examples include Singapore (26.2%), South Africa (23.7%), and Ireland (22.4%). Third-plus generation Australians are Australian-born people whose parents were both born in Australia. The influx of English-born migrants was maintained over the second half of the century by immigration policies aimed at increasing Australias population. The law acts, among other things, to express our values as a society. [4] Department of Immigration and Border Protection (2014), Australias Migration Trends 2013-14, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, p 118. For more information see Statistical Area Level 3. The areas with the highest proportion of their population born overseas were in urban New South Wales and Victoria. There were 122,506 first generation Nepalese-born Australians. There remains a need to combat hate speech and racist extremism. Cultural diversity cannot be welcomed without some limits. Academics from the University of Sydney discussed steps we need to take to combat racism and make Australia a more inclusive country. Australias multiculturalism is based on a compact of citizenship. One or more of their grandparents may have been born overseas or they may have many generations of ancestors born in Australia. Across the English-speaking world, there are senior leaders in national politics who have Asian heritage: US Vice President Kamala Harris, British Chancellor Rishi Sunak (spoken of as the next leader of the Conservative Party), and the national leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, are prime examples. The area with the highest proportion of overseas-born population in Australia was Auburn in western Sydney. It is a day for both the celebration of multiculturalism but also a day to resolve to eliminate racism and xenophobia. Skilled migrants have a higher labour market participation rate than the overall population; their median annual earnings are also higher.[4]. Finally, Tanya explains to her friends that political perspectives on diversity sometimes interact interestingly with cultural shifts. Proportionately, the number of people in Australian born in England has decreased from 6.6% in 1971 to 3.6% of the population in 2021. The top 5 ancestries were: Nepalese 88.5%, Australian 7.9%, English 4.3%, Indian 2.2%, Bhutanese 0.9%. 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Arabic was the second most used non-English language in 2021. 2109.0 - Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1947, Volume III - Statistician's Report. Information on country of birth, year of arrival, ancestry, language and religion. (b) Uses other language and speaks English well or very well. In the 2021 Census, there were over 240,000 second generation Australians who had at least one parent born in India. The Census undercount for Indian-born Australians dropped from 5.0% in 2016 to 4.8% in 2021, and was lower than Australian-born (6.2%) . Too often, politicians flirt with dog-whistling and xenophobia, because they believe theres an electoral advantage to be gained. The number of people who used this language at home almost doubled since 2016, increasing from 22,000 to 42,000 in 2021. Just consider last months public celebration of Lunar New Year. Your IP: Australia: the most successful multicultural nation in the world. Holism Theory & Overview | What is Holism in Anthropology? Note: sum of components may be greater than 100% as people could provide two ancestry responses and be double counted. This section protects anything that is done reasonably and in good faith that is artistic work or fair reporting and comment on matters of public interest. We have a wonderful opportunity to develop more nuanced understanding of what cultural diversity is within an Australian cultural context. Unfortunately, this is missed by some commentators who turn to Europe and draw the wrong conclusions for our country. Australian values based on freedom, respect, fairness and equality of opportunity are central to our community remaining a secure, prosperous and peaceful place to live. There is nothing that can be described as multicultural about such bans. The top 5 ancestries were: Nepalese 92.6%, English 3.7%, Bhutanese 1.2%, Australian 0.8%, Indian 0.7%. Religiosity Overview, Measures & Examples | What is Religiosity? That reputation is shaped by the antics of elected representatives, the discrimination experienced by international students and incidents such as the use of blackface and predjudiced cartoons that project an image of a country where casual racism is normalised. Other languages with the highest proportions of people with low English proficiency include those spoken by people who were born in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tanya's friends also point out that a political perspective has the danger of requiring people to identify with just one subgroup. There were 673,352 first generation Indian-born Australians. In all these places, Australians mix with those from different backgrounds. For this article Indian-related ancestries are considered to be Anglo-Indian, Fijian Indian, Gujarati, Indian, Indian Tamil, Kashmiri, Malayali, Parsi, Punjabi, Sikh, and Telugu. Many of those in senior leadership positions have not come to grips with the significant demographic shift of the past two decades. While England remained the most common country of birth, its proportion of the population decreased from 3.9% to 3.6% of the population. In 1971, the number of the Italian-born population peaked at 290,000 but had declined to 163,000 in 2021. That kind of open, public endorsement of diversity wouldnt be contemplated in French republican society. It wasnt until 2000 that German nationality law was changed to allow those born in the country to parents without native ancestry to claim German citizenship. Consider the case of Bropho v HREOC, where cartoons lampooning the return of the head of Yagan. For example, if one were to review the current composition of the Australian Parliament to which the Prime Minister belongs to, an overwhelming 79 per cent of the total 226 elected politicians are people of Anglo-Celtic background. 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