Australia's All-Inclusive National Identity

1580 Words4 Pages

This essay aims to argue that an all-inclusive national identity in Australia is able to provide for a largely migratory, hence multicultural society. It will attempt to explain how Australia was able to transition from a predominantly ‘white’ nationalist framework to one in which is multicultural yet upholds Australian values.

National identity as defined by Parekh (2008), indicates both to the personal identification towards a national political community deriving from membership, and to the identity of a political community that distinguishes one nation from the rest (Parekh 2008, p. 56). National identities comprise exclusive compositions of ethnicity, religious beliefs, myths, language, territorial connections and political values (Smith …show more content…

Similarly, politicians and intellectuals underscore the importance for a renewed emphasis on common citizenship and shared national identity as a substitute to multiculturalism (Moran 2011). On the contrary, many supporters of multiculturalism are doubtful of national identity, perceiving it as a homogenising force that threatens the diversity of cultures (Hage 1998). However, amidst these diametrically opposing principles of pluralism and national identity, Australia provides a testament that the two ideologies are in fact not entirely mutually exclusive entities. In fact, they can and do …show more content…

Debates on these issues have never ceased ever since the 1980s. For instance, Blainey claimed that multiculturalism would lead to ethnic disputes and ‘warring tribes’ within the nation-state (Blainey 1984, 1991). Furthermore, opposition leader John Howards put an end to bipartisanship in 1988 when he stated that ‘there are profound weaknesses in the policy of multiculturalism’, claiming it as ‘aimless’, ‘divisive’ and ‘ought to be changed’ (quoted in Jupp 2007, pp. 106-7). Then came about more controversies in the 2000s – the deemed ‘failure’ that were publicly advocated by some Howard government ministers as well as the media in integrating some Muslims and recent African immigrants (Costello 2006). Following those incidents, the more current December 2005 Cronulla riots and the perceived need to combat against Islamist terrorism granted support for Howard’s discomfort with multiculturalism as he claimed a strong national identity was necessary to defend Australia (Howard, 2008). This was seen by several as the rejection of multiculturalism and resurgence of white

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