Australia's Multiculturalism: Immigration and National Identity

This essay explores the multifaceted relationship between immigration, multiculturalism, and national identity in Australia, drawing upon Bastian's (2012) work. It argues that a true Australian identity transcends racial classifications and historical ties to Great Britain, encompassing diverse ethnic, cultural, and ideological groups. The author emphasizes that the immigrant experience highlights the importance of self-identity and cultural values. Furthermore, the essay addresses the potential for cultural conflicts arising from immigration and stresses the necessity of fostering a functioning multiculturalism through positive intergroup relations. By acknowledging its history as a nation of immigrants and promoting inclusivity, Australia can maintain a meaningful and flexible national identity, leveraging its multiculturalism for economic and social enrichment. Desklib offers a platform to explore more such assignments and study resources.

Running head: AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD
Australia And The World
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD
This essay is based on the idea of immigration in Australia and the different kinds of
civilization strategies that groups of immigrants often employ and the most beneficial one to
multiculturalism. The author believes that Australia can be a unique example of
multiculturalism and therefore why it is important to respect the delicateness of this position.
Therefore, this essay tends to argue on the identification of a true Australian, how
immigration relates to becoming an Australian and the need to work on multiculturalism.
The author emphasizes on three main arguments to demonstrate the position. Firstly,
he focused on the question of who actually is an Australian. He states that Australians are not
referred to the Whites. One of the factors that led to this kind of belief is the current
Australian flag, which shows that Australia must have a connection with Great Britain
(Bastian, 2012). This is true only for white European but the Italian, Greek and the refugees;
they are not identified with Britain but as Australians. Even though Australia has passed
many barriers, it managed to incorporate ethnicity, culture, and ideologically significant
groups under ‘Australian’. Secondly, he stated how civilization and immigration reflects on
the process of becoming Australian. The tendency to identify different cultural identities is
not exceptional to immigrants or Italians only. One needs only to visit London to know the
Australian culture in all its glory or to meet the ex-patriot employees of Australia in Dubai or
Malaysia. When an individual leaves his country, he realizes the importance of his self-
identity and the foundation of values and traditions. A failure group of immigrants would not
leave Australia where people love to eat shop and visit but would reduce its rich diverse
culture. Thirdly, the author stated the need of creating a functioning multiculturalism.
Immigration in a society can lead to culture conflicts and separatism. One of the factors that
lead to differences is the failure of developing relationships with the members. When an
individual already holds prejudice against each other, it is difficult to have a positive
interaction. By reducing, the negative impacts will not be sufficient as the nature of group

2AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD
differences plays an important role. The people who view their social group as this way those
social categories traits don’t change so easily, don’t re-define themselves as new nationalized
identities and also can’t see themselves to be shared commonly with others members of the
group.
Therefore, the above study, it can be concluded that Australia can be an interesting
example of multiculturalism worldwide. It is a hotbed for multilingual and multicultural
growth and because of the multiculturalism; it has brought wealth, trade and tourism to
Australia. The Australian identity will remain deep, meaningful and flexible as long as the
fact that Australia is a nation of boat people is remembered.

3AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD
References
Bastian, B. (2012). Immigration, multiculturalism and the changing face of Australia.
In Peace psychology in Australia(pp. 55-70). Springer, Boston, MA.