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Reflections on a multicultural nation

By Andrew Jakubowicz - posted Wednesday, 15 November 2006


Cultural hierarchies that force obeisance of some to others, that corral minorities into ghettos of hate and poverty, and that demand a singular consciousness, are doomed to be places of violence and outrage.

There is enough evidence from around the world to support such a statement: the USSR, Franco’s Spain, both the Shah’s and Khomeini’s Iran. We know that cultures that engage with each other and are open to exchange and growth produce extraordinary creativity and opportunities for innovation, as in Spain under the Muslim rulers of the early centuries of the last millennium.

This engagement has to be multi-directional to work, and a willingness to change and learn is a pre-condition for the positive outcomes that can result.

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Is this all too soft and wishy-washy? Is this just another tirade from the “soft left” based on a naïve faith and a black-armband view of history? Let me suggest why it is not.

Multiculturalism has carried a lot of baggage. Many serious political players believe multiculturalism allowed Islamist jihad into Australia (or if not the terrorists, then at the very least organised and violent crime), widespread racially inspired sexual assault, and an upsurge in hard drug use (see Quadrant). Some of these things were said about my parents’ community in the 1940s, the Italians in the 1950s and 1960s, the Indo-Chinese in the 1970s and 1980s, and, of course, the Arabs-Muslims in the last decade or so.

We know from the last 60 years that some refugee Jews were criminals in Australia, but the vast majority were not, and since that time some criminals have been Jewish, though most are not. We know that the mano nero operated in Italian communities, and the mafia was active in various parts of Australia; most Italians had nothing to do with either, and detested them and their works and are ashamed by their residual presence.

Despite the shattered lives that forced 200,000 Indo-Chinese refugees to seek a new life in Australia, only a few were ever heroin dealers or extortionists or murderers. The overwhelming majority wanted nothing to do with these people and have proved themselves throughout Australian society.

And for the 400,000 or so Australian Muslims, the destructive behaviour of a small minority remains a cancerous sore eating at their hopes and dreams - or rather, the mainstream misperception is what is undermining their confidence and aspirations.

So multiculturalism has not had its day, though there are those who fear change in themselves and will do everything in their power to ensure it disappears from the political lexicon.

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The avalanche of abuse directed towards the idea of a co-operative society, one that recognises all its members as part of the story, has overwhelmed the now too clearly fragile edifices built on decades of good-will and mutual respect. All it takes, as they say, for evil to triumph is for people of goodwill to do nothing.

The energy directed against multiculturalism has been truly evil, for it has been advancing an agenda of supercilious and corrosive superiority, with an absolute disregard for the consequences. This is not about Left and Right, of cold war ideologues snapping their braces as they see off their enemies. This is about ensuring a modern cosmopolitan society and its survival as a civil space. That task confronts us all.

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This article was commissioned by Australian mosaic, the national magazine of FECCA and will be published in the next edition, issue 15.



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About the Author

Andrew Jakubowicz is a professor of sociology at the University of Technology Sydney. He blogs for the SBS program CQ: http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/cq/tab-listings/page/i/2/h/Blog/

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