Melbourne's Multicultural Challenges

WWII had a big impact on the social changes in Australia before and after the war. One of the reasons it had such an impact on Australia was due to the immigration policy, which was made to increase Australia’s population. The immigration policy is a policy on legal migrants. Legal migrants who come to Australia under the migration act are non – Australians who come to the country for work or other reasons without permission or people who overstay their visas. This enforces that those who come in the country without permission may be subject to mandatory immigration detention and may be deported from the country at any time, unless been given permission to stay in Australia. This policy has contributed to the multicultural society of Australia today. To this day, there in an estimated 50 000 people who have overstayed their visas, most of these people come from British nations. Those touching base by boat or different means without official classification as refugees are no longer granted permission outcast status on landing. For example, those from an Asian background are becoming a more familiar part of Australia’s society today. Overseas migrant entries have assumed a vital part in changing the face of Australia. The current variety of migrants born in Australia include areas such as The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam, China, Greece, Germany, Philippines and India. Since the change in immigration policy in the late 1960s to one of non-discrimination on race or ethnic background, there has been a significant change in the overseas sources of migrants, with settlers arriving from more diverse regions of the world. To this day, Australia’s overseas born population consists of people who practise over 140 recognized ethnic groups, people who fluently speak over 90 different languages and people who believe in over 80 different religions. This expanding ethnic and social diversity has changed the way Australians view both themselves and other societies of the world. It has

Australia is a very culturally diverse country, meaning that it consists of many cultures and ethnicities from around the world. This diversity is mostly due to immigration,

‘75% of Australians identified with an ancestry other than Australian in the 2011 Census. 43% have at least one parent who has born overseas. 30% of the population were born in another country. In all, Australians come from over 200 birthplaces.’ http://www.racismnoway.com.au/about-racism/population/

So what does “multiculturalism” mean? In simple terms multiculturalism is the coexistence, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures in a singular geographic or democratic jurisdiction. Multiculturalism has been a huge part of this study as Australia as a nation is diversified into a various cultural aspects. The concept of multiculturalism has become a widely accepted and embraced fact around the world as more and more countries have adopted to the global policies of acceptance which not only helps the nation economically but also contributes towards the growth of various cultural boundaries and also helps develop knowledge about wide spread variety of customs and culture groups around the world. Ultimately the essence of multiculturalism in any society is to eradicate the feeling of an outsider and accept ethnic and racial groups as their our and build the concept of unity in

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

Australia “The Lucky Country”; a stepping stone to a better life. The words of social critic Donald Horne stated in 1964 have been used to describe Australia’s wonderful culture, history and lifestyle. For many 20th century migrants this is what they only knew about the country creating an outburst of migrants arriving into Australia with the desire to seek a better life, escape poverty, war or persecution. They brought along with them a mix bag of emotions; fear and worry, happiness and joy alongside the expectations of the typical Australian life hoping to find acceptance, belonging, freedom and a promising future. However, due to the impact of many polices and historical events that have taken place in the past, the migrant experience has

Auburn is a suburb in western Sydney in the state of New South Wales Australia which had major changes that occurred over the years, the three major changes are transport population and culture.

Post WW2, under the growing mindset that Australia must ‘populate or perish’ in order to maintain and grow the nations security, workforce and economy, 3million migrants from Italy, Greece, and other European countries immigrated to Australia, in accordance with the ‘White Australia Policy”. Majority of these immigrants were adherents of either the Catholic or Orthodox Church, therefore whilst new religions were introduced, they did not have as much of a significant impact of the religious landscape as the immigrants post 1972 did.

Almost one third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in major cities such as Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Today Australia is known as a multicultural country who allows people from all over the world to migrate to Australia. People are definitely not allowed to our country only because of what religion or language they speak, and definitely not based on skin color. Well this was not the case 45 years ago. 45 years ago was when the government stopped the non European immigration policy, which better known as the White Australia Policy. It started in 1901 and ended in 1975. The policy lasted for 75 years. The White Australia policy was not a single government directive, but a series of acts with a common goal, to achieve and maintain a white, British national character. When the policy ended it was a very big turning point in the country because

Culture is always changing. Beliefs, behaviours and presentation, religion and language all form part of what is an individual’s or community’s culture. (Bowes, Grace, & Hodge, 2012, p.75 & 77). Due to its intrinsic nature, when people migrate to Australia, they bring their culture with them. As migrants come from all over the world, and not the one place, their

Australian cities like Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne are great places to live in Australia. These cities have a European way of life.

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.

Australia’s population is culturally and ethnically diverse. As at June 2010, there were 22.3 million residents in Australia, around one-quarter of the population was born overseas and many residents who were born in Australia have a parent who was born in another country. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders represent 2.3% of the population

While there is little doubt that overall multiculturalism is convenient for Australia, there are a few disadvantages resulting from this policy such as the perpetual increase of racist tendencies amongst the population. This is due to a lack of anti-racism plans of