Racist yet multicultural! This sounds quite contradictory, doesn’t it? Well, there’s no such thing as a racist multicultural society, it’s rather a multicultural policy that is ironically leading to racist behavior.
How is Australia multicultural? Australia is home to people of all races, colors and languages. That’s a fact. The country welcomes everyone in, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Irish, Italians, Spanish, Greek, Germans, Lebanese, Iraqis, Indians, Nigerians etc. Yes, in that sense, it is multicultural, if by multiculturalism, we mean a diverse group of people sharing the same “continent” and having equal access to the same governmental services and benefits.
But where’s racism in all this? Well, an interesting phenomenon is that somehow all the aforementioned groups have managed to create almost a replica of their own home countries in Australia. Somehow, either on their own initiative or aided by the government, they have built small nations within a big nation. Those small nations even have their own unofficial borders. The government is or has either directly or indirectly facilitated for migrants to form fairly large mono-ethnic huddles where they could never challenged out of their comfort zone. In Sydney, Iraqis (predominantly Assyrians) have their Fairfield, Lebanese have their Bankstown, Lakemba, Punchbowl, Merrylands and Granville, Vietnamese have their Cabramatta, Chinese have their Hurstville and Chatswood, Koreans have their Strathfield etc, so much for co-living!
How I see multiculturalism! My understanding and expectation of a multicultural nation is a place where people of different races, nationalities, ethnicities and languages blend in to form one cohesive community united in a common language and by one set of values the most important of which are tolerance, equality and peaceful co-living.
Blending in? How is this going to happen when new settlers keep flocking and hiding in their cultural and ethnic safe zones? This swarming in ethnic hives produces a “us against them” mentality and breeds hatred and intolerance towards other ethnic groups especially the one(s) considered to be the dominant. Allowing this to continue is encouraging migrants to become more territorial and isolated in their little worlds deprived of any incentive to integrate into the wider society. It’s a racist and a divisive approach that will lead to serious social problems and even civil conflicts.
United in a common language? It is obvious that a large segment of the migrant population cannot adequately communicate in English. Despite English being the national language of the country, about a million migrants cannot speak it at all and do not use it as their first language, because they obviously do not need to. Among the many migrants who CAN speak English, a few are able to speak it well enough to work and interact with the larger English speaking population. Sadly, Australia’s failure to train migrants in English is handicapping them in respect of economic, political and social life, and as a result, in many cases, their Australian-born children also don’t speak proper English.
Why is a common language essential for unity? Language frees migrants of fear, the fear of the unknown, the fear of cultural and religious differences, the fear of unemployment, and the fear of loneliness. There’s also the fear of humiliation. Nothing is more terrifying for a migrant than being in a situation in which he absolutely needs to understand what he’s being told or to be understood. There’s nothing more humiliating for humans than seeing their intellect rendered impotent. No one likes to be impotent. Most of us prefer to stay in our comfort zone, we feel safe, protected, recognized and part of a community, a small community, but A community nevertheless.
Why is forming ethnic or racial communities dangerous and divisive rather than multicultural? Out of the need for survival or the desire to prosper on one hand and lacking the abilities or the qualities to shine as an individual on the other, migrants, often members of ethnic communities, are naturally drawn towards working only for the benefit and interest of their communities to achieve personal gain. Such is the mind of the collectivist. It’s the words of the Russian-American philosopher and author Ayn Rand that ring true today as they did more than 50 years ago. Rand looked at racism as the most “primitive form of collectivism” as it is the least demanding form of “belonging” and “togetherness”. When people begin to feel helpless outside a certain group, they “gravitate toward some group or another, in self-protection, in bewilderment and in subconscious terror”. So while the Australian government is bragging about the cultural and ethnic diversity of its societies, touting the success of its multicultural policy, the country slowly drifts into division and disunity, a less spectacular reality.
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