Australian Multiculturalism

Australian multiculturalism - a policy strategy aimed at facilitating effective social integration of non-British immigrants and managing cultural diversity- was devised in the 1950s and 60s, and adopted as government policy in the 1970s. As a number of recent publications in the European and Australian media suggest, this form of multiculturalism ha~ been misunderstood and confused with ethnic pluralism and assimilationist, 'melting pot' approaches. These confusions seem particularly widespread in Europe. This is hardly surprising considering the scarcity of public clarifications of what multiculturalism is, the strong political backlash against uncontrolled migrations, and the paucity of informed debate about long term strategies of migrant settlement and adaptation. The paper outlines the principles of Australian multiculturalism, identiftes its theoretical foundations, and highlights some of the widespread confusions about its meaning, focus and objectives.