University Sociology Assignment: Analyzing Issues in Diversity

This sociology assignment examines several key aspects of diversity within society. It begins by addressing racism, defining its various forms and providing a personal account of racial harassment, highlighting the negative impacts of prejudice and stereotypes. The assignment then explores the contributions of immigration to Australia's economy and multiculturalism, emphasizing the positive impacts immigrants have on the labor market and cultural diversity. Further, the assignment delves into workplace diversity, discussing age-related issues, the importance of management in fostering a positive work environment for all generations, and the need for judging employees based on capability rather than age. Finally, it considers religious diversity, the impact of religious beliefs on individuals, and the importance of religious literacy within organizations, providing recommendations for promoting an inclusive environment and addressing religious discrimination. The assignment references course materials and external sources to support its arguments.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Issues in diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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ISSUES IN DIVERSITY
Question 1:
Answer: Racism exists as a problematic belief in the society, the idea that one race is superior
to the other based on skin colour is off putting (Jonason 2015). This tends to create division
within the society inciting often prejudiced and aggressive behaviour towards a certain section of
the society or race. There are several forms of racism such as individual, institutional, overt and
subtle discrimination. Even though it is a well-accepted fact that racism is an evil practice it still
persist, though it is more subtle and often difficult to detect.
Personally, I have experienced racial harassment in an individual level while travelling to
work. When a person out of nowhere asked me to leave the country, and called me a brown dirt.
It was disturbing since the basis of the stereotype was since I am a non-white person, I was
definitely an immigrant someone who was not worthy of being in the same place as the white
person. I was called out based on my skin tone and that was believed to be dirty, a physical
attribute that I have no control over. The stereotype is extremely common for a Caucasian
person to assume that any non-white person cannot be a valid citizen of Australia and it is a right
solely reserved for the whites only. Discrimination such as these is humiliating and frustrating,
for not being recognised as a citizen in my own country but equally through provoking that
immigrants must face these prejudices often because of their skin tone and never fully
acknowledged for the person they are (Santiago-Rivera et al. 2016).
Reference
Jonason, P.K., 2015. How “dark” personality traits and perceptions come together to predict
racism in Australia. Personality and Individual Differences, 72, pp.47-51.

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Santiago-Rivera, A.L., Adames, H.Y., Chavez-Dueñas, N.Y. and Benson-Flórez, G., 2016. The
impact of racism on communities of color: Historical contexts and contemporary issues.
Question 2:
Answer:
My grandfather has always told me the story of how my grandmother left Bangladesh
during the partition war of 1971. They escaped genocide that killed hundreds of Hindu
Bangladeshis; my grandparents lost their homes and families in the war and decided to come to
Australia to start afresh. My mother was born in Australia and the initial days were filled with
struggle, language barrier often created problems for my grandparents. Slowly they adjusted to
their new life and opened up a restaurant, which is specialised in Bengali cuisine that has become
quite popular over the years.
Migration has contributed to Australia’s long-term productivity. The immigrant
demographic contributes immensely to the economy, contrary to the popular belief that they
drain resources (Peri 2016). Immigrants tend to take up more manual intensive jobs or the left
over jobs that the natives do not want and face more discrimination, exploitation than their native
counterparts do. They contribute to up skilling of the labour market and helps to increase the
country’s per capita income. Immigrants often aid the economy by starting new business
ventures and help to expand the consumer market for local goods and services of the host
country as well. Additionally, the immigrant do not compete with the jobs of natives either ( Le
2019). Immigrants add to the multicultural diversity in Australia that is very necessary to
achieve a globalised diverse society. Diversification helps people to be culturally knowledgeable

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and more open-minded approach towards life. These factors is extremely advantageous to build a
progressive nation (Sanchez Holguin 2018).
Reference
Peri, G., 2016. Immigrants, productivity, and labor markets. Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 30(4), pp.3-30.
Sanchez Holguin, V.E., 2018. Colombia's history of modern architecture revisited through the
housing agency Instituto de Crédito Territorial: 1939-1965 (Doctoral dissertation).
Le, T. (2019). My immigration story. [online] Ted.com. Available at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_immigration_story#t-5094 [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].
Question 3:
Answer:
1.
Simon Sinek puts forward an interesting perspective where he raises some important
work related issues in which he states job satisfaction is one of the important aspect contributes
to employees self-esteem as well as the growth of the organisation. However, these processes are
time consuming wherein a person slowly builds skill set and gains experience for their work
(Sinek 2019). Mr Sinek believes that the millennials seek instant gratification and therefore often
feel loss of confidence and inability to cope with work pressure. I do agree with his perspective
of millennials in this aspect.
2.

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The management plays an important role in creating a positive work environment for its
young workforce. It is important to build their self-confidence and motivation so that they can
perform better as well as fit into their job roles better. With the changing generation the thought
process and ideology related to work has changed considerably. While the older generation
which is often the leadership and major decision making roles they need to make suitable work
culture that their young upcoming employees.
The older generation face an anxiety of termination, denial of promotion, harms their
self-esteem when subjected to ridicule and ignored, this creates deep psychological impact on the
older workforce and effects them socially as well as economically as they often have to resort to
low paying jobs to meet their needs. While, the younger workforce face challenges to balance
their work and education and are often paid less and never allowed to take on leadership roles.
These aspects have deep impacts on these demographics (Joshi, Dencker and Franz, 2011). It is
recommended an employee should be judged based only on their capability and not age. It is also
essential that the work environment is conducive and inclusive of all ages, therefore age diversity
is necessary.
Reference
Sinek, S. (2019). YouTube. [online] Youtube.com. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPaQPWfqjmw&app=desktop
Joshi, A., Dencker, J.C. and Franz, G., 2011. Generations in organizations. Research in
Organizational Behavior, 31, pp.177-205.

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Question 4:
Answer:
Religion is described as a complex set of beliefs and practice that influences an
individual’s way of life and governs their worldview. Religion is much like gender and race that
divides the society based on a belief system (Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life
Project, 2019). There are prejudices and misconception regarding religion that can be
discriminative at work and harm the work environment. The employee who observes their faith
can be mocked or targeted to abuse based on certain assumptions that is not true and cause
psychological and emotional duress to the individual. To illustrate, a person who is a Muslim and
his faith tell him he needs to pray five times a day and therefore requires breaks. The other
employees might feel it to a preferential treatment and target the employee calling him or her
terrorist owing to the islamophobia, or may not be employed at all. These factors harm the
functional capacity of an organisation and effect the image of the company.
There are few recommendations that organisations can implement to ensure religious
literacy. Firstly, employers must educate themselves on the various religious practices that exists
in their organisation. Secondly, they must provide a safe and positive environment for all their
employees so that they feel welcomed and contribute better. Thirdly, organisations should be
careful about dress code of their employees and should not force certain dress codes if they are
not a job necessity. Fourthly, the organisation should ensure that all the employees are culturally
aware, respect each other’s faith, and take part in celebration of various religious festivals.
Lastly, the organisation should have disciplinary action against employees who violate the
workplace culture (Becci, Burchardt and Casanova, 2013).

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Reference
Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. (2019). Religious Diversity Around The
World. [online] Available at: https://www.pewforum.org/2014/04/04/global-religious-diversity/
[Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].
Becci, I., Burchardt, M. and Casanova, J., 2013. Topographies of faith: religion in urban spaces.
Brill.
Nazor, V. (2019). Keeping the faith: how migrants are reviving Christian churches. [online] SBS
News. Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/keeping-the-faith-how-migrants-are-reviving-
christian-churches [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

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