Australia's Cultural Diversity Research Paper

Australia has been a culturally diverse society since long before white settlement. The indigenous people had many different cultures, languages and customs, even members of the First Fleet came from a number of culturally significant backgrounds. Diversity in Australia took large strides 67 years ago with the beginning of the Snowy River Scheme which promoted skilled immigrants to come here and work, because as a nation just after World War II we lacked the manpower and knowledge to complete such a large and complicated project.

Australia is a multicultural country and welcomes people from varying nationalities into its communities each and every day. As a result, classrooms all over Australia are changing. No matter what location a teacher is contracted to, there will be some element of a variety of cultures within that environment. Diversity of cultures within individual communities will fluctuate from town to town and state to state as people re-settle and create homes for themselves and forge a new identity and sense of place. As a teacher, it is also important to note, that the experiences of migrant students in your class will vary. Some may assimilate very well; others may encounter more hurdles than others. A teacher’s role in a child’s life should be one which is positive. Supporting a child through their education and ensuring they have appropriate care and compassion in relation to their situation is important. This guide has been put together to help teachers with some background knowledge on educating culturally diverse students and some strategies to help foster compassion and understanding within the classroom.

Historically, Australia and its policies were not accepting of immigration of a Multicultural Australia. With the ‘White Australia Policy’, adopted in 1901 (when the colonies

The Gold Rush made Australia largely colonised and continually expanding. In 1852, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia from many different countries. The economy boomed and many different cultures were introduced. Countries like England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, China and Germany showed up as the majority of diggers on the Australian census. The population continued to grow

Multiculturalism in relation to Society and Culture is how persons work corporately in regards to their culture in a society. However, over time the growth of Australia's population has increase their culture in the country, yet the spectrum of persons in the media remains the same. Despite Australia having a multicultural policy that describe the "cultural and ethnic diversity of contemporary Australia". It is inefficient in the media, on a macro level. With the rise of media, there is a common trend with the persons in the industry being all Caucasian according to PWC recent report. This trend has interest me due to 6.7 million of Australians were born oversea. My interest is influenced by persons in the macro world, Osman Faruqi statement

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has stated that “Australia is the world’s most successful multicultural nation”. All the people know Australia is a multicultural state which is a civilization of populace from a wealthy variety of artistic, racial, linguistic. The multiculturalism describes the difference of culture and race in modern Australia. This difference is trying to safeguard the benefit of every Australian and national interest. Cultural variety is significant since our state, workplaces, and school are comprised of a variety of artistic, ethnic, and racial clusters. We can gain knowledge of it from one another. Everyone has their rights to express and share their culture heritage including language and religion. All of us have to establish a stage of accepting about each other. Everyone needs to respect each other whatever by different culture and religion, this is the meaning of freedom. Freedom is not likely to get rid of limitation or do what you want to do. It is a standard that everyone can understand the differences brought about by different cultures.

Throughout history has Melbourne been known to be a multicultural city and what aspect of the city creates this diversity? Is it the people who live here, is it the many natural or tourist attractions? The way Australia was populated, for example those who came during the gold rush or during the war, is probably the biggest factor in determining how multicultural

Australia is the only country in the world that covers an entire continent; It is a developed capitalist country; it is a multicultural immigrant country. According to Cambridge dictionary (n.d.), immigration means that the act of someone coming to live in a different country. Today’s modern, urbanized and affluent Australia is due to continued immigration (Jupp, 2002). However, the history of immigrants in Australia is not smooth sailing. On January 1, 1901, several British colonies on the Australian continent formed the Commonwealth of Australia belongs to the United Kingdom. In the same year, the White Australia policy became the basic national policy of Australia, that means only white immigrants could become the Australian Citizenship

Australia is a settler nation which is now made up of many ethnic groups who share similar cultural traditions, common language, shared history and a shared identity (ABS, 2016). These groups contribute to what is referred to multiculturalism. Australia has a higher proportion of people born overseas than the US, Canada and the UK, with 49% of Australia’s population (or a parent) being born overseas (Census of Population and Housing, 2016). Compared to other Western nations, Australia has one of the most diverse immigration populations (Collins, 2013, p. 145). The meaning of multiculturalism in Australia has changed significantly over time. Today, Australia is a culturally and ethnically diverse country and therefore is a multicultural society. In terms of public policy, multiculturalism can be defined as policies and practices implemented by the Australian government that aim to manage cultural diversity to benefit the whole of society (Department of Social Services, 2014). Although Australia is a multicultural society, there are criticisms of public policy surrounding multiculturalism.

The first people to live in Australia are the Aboriginal people which have said to be here from around 50,000 years ago. It says in the book True Blue “No culture can exist unmodified in a new environment” ( Peter Goldsworthy, 2008, page.57). but the Aboriginal culture is one of the longest lasting ever through their ability to change and adapt to the time which proves this quote wrong. Aboriginal people help in shaping Australia's identity as they are the main core of culture and history through their art, land and tourism. These aspects help create a cultural country which everyone can live

Australia was colonised by Britain in 1778, and this triggered immigration from Europe and the United Kingdom. Since then, Australia has seen patterns of people from all over the world coming in waves to start a life here, for reasons such as wanting to improve their quality

Disability Discrimination is a behaviour that is unlawful and unacceptable toward people that have a disability. Besides that, there is over four million Australians that have disability living in Australia (1). Therefore, Disability Discrimination Act 1992 was launched in order to protect people with disabilities so that they can have normal life as others.

Australians made it clear that they wanted to conserve and protect their white colonies, since the ‘flood of foreigners’ at the time of the gold rushes (ibid). Each colony had its own anti-Chinese laws by the 1890s (ibid). The problem of Asian migration was frequently raised in the media and in political cartoons (ibid). People who had migrated from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales) primarily made up Australia in 1900 (ibid). About 17 percent of the population were British-born (ibid). From the non-Indigenous population, 75 percent were born in Australia, and most had parents or grandparents who travelled out from Britain (ibid). While people from Asia and the Pacific Islands formed a very small proportion of the population, it was a fear of them that led to one of the first acts of the federal government being a Bill to stop them migrating into the country

Native and introduced species have adapted to live in Australia in many ways. Australia is one of the most diverse countries in the world. It has I loud a range of animals to establish populations, conditions in the ecosystem and that unexpected damages. Millions of species of plants and animals are found in Australia. The native and introduced species adopted to life in Australia because it was cut off from the rest of the world landmasses and so animals were unable to do so in other parts of the world.

Australia is a multicultural country which is surrounded by a high percentage of different cultures that had migrated in the early 1950s and 1960s from many different countries all around the globe. By this reason as a teacher working in Australia I need to have the awareness of the sociocultural diversity in the country. Through the knowledge of the cultural differences of citizens we need to consider social class, ethnicity, gender, language and its effects on learning in schools. I would be interacting with many different children that belongs into different forms of these category, for example in the consideration of SES (Social Economic Statues) the knowledge of its indicators of wealth, power and prestige brings along the impact it has