Immigration, indigeneity and identity: Cosmopolitanism in Australia and New Zealand

As nations that have relied on immigration to promote economic growth, both Australia and New Zealand provide an interesting case study in relation to the politics of cosmopolitanism. Over the last 40 years, both nations have jettisoned, albeit reluctantly, a narrow fom1 of Anglo-centric nationalism, including racist immigration policies, and instead embraced measures to entice skilled migrants from across the globe. Contemporary Australia and New Zealand, like other nation states, are in flux as a consequence of their failure to adopt policies that address the tensions and fissures that have arisen as a consequence of global processes, technological shifts, and unprecedented demographic change.

We begin our contribution 1 to this collection by setting out what we understand by the term 'cosmopolitanism', before going on to sketch the historical context of both nations. The main part of our chapter explores cosmopolitanism across three thematic areas: immigration; indigeneity; and identity. Though these overlap, our reason for choosing these themes is that they represent three key areas in which cosmopolitan (and anti-cosmopolitan) tendencies are at work in Australia and New Zealand, while they also serve to illustrate some of the contemporary challenges, social divisions, and points of conflict that confront both nations. In our conclusion, we consider the extent to which cosmopolitanism, understood as a specific political project, has the potential to address these challenges and tension, and ask what the example of Australia and New Zealand can tell us about the politics of postcolonial societies in the contemporary world.