A Comparative Study of Multiculturalism in Australia and Indonesia

This essay undertakes a comparative analysis of multiculturalism in Australia and Indonesia, examining how these two nations approach cultural diversity and integration. It begins by defining multiculturalism and highlighting its core principles, such as the co-existence of diverse cultures and the importance of human rights. The essay then delves into Australia's multicultural landscape, discussing its immigration policies, the evolution of its approach to cultural diversity, and the government's efforts to promote social justice and economic efficiency. It also acknowledges the challenges and fears associated with multiculturalism, such as the risk of terrorism and inter-ethnic conflicts. The essay then shifts its focus to Indonesia, exploring its unique multicultural context, which encompasses a multitude of ethnic groups and languages. It contrasts Indonesia's approach to multiculturalism with Australia's, emphasizing the former's emphasis on maintaining cultural identity and promoting unity in diversity. The essay further compares the differences in social norms and government policies between the two countries. The essay concludes by highlighting the different challenges faced by both countries in adopting multiculturalism and the ways in which they strive to provide justice and equal opportunities to all groups of people.

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Multiculturalism
Student’s Name

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Multiculturalism is the co-existence of the diverse cultures where culture comprises of an
ethnic, religious, or cultural group and is revealed in routine behaviours, cultural assumption
and principles, patterns of thinking and communication styles. It means that one cultural
identity cannot control all the other identities; people are able to contribute to their faith
community without contradicting or hiding their cultural identities (Taylor, 2016).
Multiculturalism means cultivating a religious community where individuals of all races,
traditions, and cultures perceive their cultural identities revealed and acknowledged in every
phase of congregational life—worship companionship, leadership, governance, religious
education, social justice, etc (Race, 2015).
It is basically the development of a shared community in which all the diverse cultures are
respected and creates a positive environment that is supportive and fair for all the people. It
majorly focuses on the minority groups and believes that these groups are worthy of special
acknowledgement of their difference within a foremost political culture. Human rights are the
basic standards that govern the success of the approval of the multiculturalism. They are the
secular principles that guide human interactions evolving dignity, mutual respect and equality
(Race, 2015).
It is considered as the demographic descriptor of the varied population considering diverse
cultures, religions and the national identities living within the boundary. The countries plan
several programs, policy to effectively respond to such diversity. It includes anti-terrorism
measures, special welfare and language training services and anti-discrimination measures.
Multiculturalism is well defined as a reliable society run around definite cultural ideal rather
than as a collection of ghettoised individual cultural foundations. Multiculturalism is based
upon the foundations of fairness, equality, justice and non-discrimination. It is understood as

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a social compact that includes power and wealth sharing between diverse ethnocultural
groups (Meer, 2016).
Multiculturalism is related to immigrant assimilation, combination and adaptation, which
affects immigrants’ success in the adopted countries. Adoption of multiculturalism leads to
positive impacts on the country but also includes the threat of terrorism, inter-ethnic crises
and ethnic crime (Blair, 2015).
It is analysed that the acceptance of multiculturalism is high among the Australian public.
The government of the country has developed well-organized immigration programs to
generate the acceptance of the diverse culture among the Australian population. The country
has high acceptability of the diverse culture after the introduction of the active policy of
immigration since the year 1945. The government and the non –government organizations in
Australia are making continuous efforts to have the acceptance of cultural diversity and
respect the diverse culture and norms. The Australian government had made significant
changes in the multiculturalism policy after the year 1970 (Blair, 2015).
During the World War I and II, the Australian government establish the imprisonment camps
in the remote locations for the women, men and children and classed them as enemy aliens
and the country adopted the white Australian policy. The government restricted non-
European immigration to Australia. The development of the new policies limits ethnic and
cultural diversity and excludes the persons who did not fit the character of Australian society
(Pruitt, 2016).
After the year 1970, the Australian government adopted multiculturalism and develop the
policies to accept cultural diversity and intimate positive response towards the diverse
population. The government provide the medical support system, especially to the non-
English speaking residents. The white government policy was way out after World War II

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because Australia’s neighbouring were transforming fast and the country did not prefer to left
behind them. In the early years, the country aimed to have white migrants from the
neighbouring countries like Dutch, Germans and Scandinavians were welcomed. Therefore
the current research justified that now Australia has diverse cultural groups and the diverse
populations accepts, respects the different religions, cultures and languages to provide the
comfortable space to the diverse groups and ensures that all the people get the equal rights
and justice by developing various programs and policies (Stratton, 2016).
The country Australia has an exceptional history and has been formed by the variety of her
residents, the standard of living and modern culture. It is analysed that Australia is described
as a vibrant and multicultural nation and the number of people who have migrants from
various places around the world is approximately seven million. The country has rich
enriching diversity and its main power is the national identity. The government of Australia
has developed the racial intolerance act, which states that favouritism in the country is against
the law. It focuses on delivering a powerful message on communal commitment and
promotes racial equality and justice for all (Klein, 2016).
It is analysed that one in every four Australian citizens was born in foreign parts, with 46% of
the inhabitants having at least a parent who was born abroad. Further, almost 20% of the
residents say a language that is not English. Overall, Australians converse more than 200
languages and that other than English; the most frequently spoken languages in the country
are Italian, Arabic, Chinese and Greek (Ozdowski, 2017).
The major religion in Australia is Christianity with approximately 61 % of the inhabitants
profess the religions and includes Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. The development
of the multiculturalism model is based on the three perspectives that include cultural
individuality, social integrity and economic competence. In the cultural individuality aspect,

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the citizen has the right to choose language and religious affiliation. The citizens are free to
make decisions and select cultural identity. The government of Australia focuses on
practising social justice and ensures that there is no racial discrimination based on the caste,
religion, skin and sex. It promotes equality and ensures a free comfortable lifestyle to all the
diverse cultural groups. It focuses on developing economic efficiency by promoting the
talents of the citizens irrespective of their origins. It leaves a positive impact on the country
by providing the opportunity to the emerging talents and increasing the economic efficiency
of the country (Klein, 2016).
The changes in the migration policy have allowed the Muslims and the Asians to migrate to
Australia and leave a positive impact on the country. The government has developed well-
organized programs to create acceptability and awareness of diverse cultural identity
(Sukamto, Ruja and Purnomo, 2018).
Adoption of the multiculturalism policy increases the risk for the country because it will lead
to the threat of terrorism, inter-ethnic clashes and disturbing the harmony and peace of the
country. The country has the fear that violation against any culture can hamper their image
and leads to false allegations on the government of Australia. Despite all the fears and
allegations, the country welcomes the diverse population and provides an equal opportunity
to enhance their living standards and ensure social justice with all the people who are born
overseas. The country has faced various challenges in the assimilation of immigrants and is
able to be successful in adopting the multiculturalism (Sukamto, Ruja and Purnomo, 2018).
It is critically evaluated that Indonesia is very diverse in adopting Austronesian Javanese to
Chinese Hokkien to even Melanesian Papuan culture. Every island in Indonesia comprises of
different ethnics with its own culture. The Indonesian part of Papua itself has more than 300
different ethnic groups with their own languages. However, multicultural Indonesia is not

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sharpened by immigrants rather 95% of Indonesian is of native pribumi people (Metz et al,
2016).
In comparison to Australia, Indonesia is relatively more peaceful because it considers all the
people as Indonesian. The government of Indonesia has listed 340 ethnic categories and 646
living languages within the Indonesian boundary. The country has its uniqueness, which lies
on multiculturalism and adopts the policy of “Unity in diversity”. Indonesia is not a melting
pot country like Australia but develops the harmonious relationship with others without
giving up on its own culture. The main motto of the company is “Bhinneka Tunggall Ika”
which promotes many but one and Indonesians are the pride of this uniqueness. The main
reason for adopting this motto is to show the political significance of following the
diversified mixed ethnic combination rather than the American style melting pot. The
government of Indonesia has designed policies to deal with the political dispute of cultural
pluralism through developing harmonious relations and unthreatening social differences
(Dagistanli, Possamai, Turner, Voyce and Roose, 2018).
Indonesia is the biggest Muslim democracy in the world and also has a well-balanced
harmony between numerous religious and ethnic groups. The Indonesian ministry of religious
affairs and the Indonesian embassy in Brussels are dedicated to providing religious freedom
and creating societal harmony. The government of Indonesia conducts continuous efforts to
develop harmonious relations by promoting the motto of unity in diversity. This country is
neither religious nor secular and promotes the freedom of religion. It hosts different religions
including Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, and Hindus (Harjatanaya and Hoon, 2018).
There is a diverse difference in the adoption of multiculturalism between the countries
Australia and Indonesia. In the country Australia, multiculturalism means diverse people with
different coloured faces are living together while in the country of Indonesia the term

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multiculturalism refers to the mosaic of different cultures who are living together. It is
observed that in Indonesia there is a high focus on maintaining the identity on the migrants by
the development of various policies by the government while In Australia the government has
laid various policies for maintenance of identity of migrants but are not able to do in practical
implications (Noor, 2018).
In Indonesia, the consumption of alcohol, homosexuality and is wearing of short clothes by
women is not allowed while in the country Australia the consumption of Alcohol,
homosexuality and wearing of short clothes is accepted and the government supports such
actions. In Indonesia, the people do not consider punctuality and more focused on developing
emotion relationship before getting into professional matters while in Australia the people are
highly punctual and do not focus on developing a long-standing relationship with the people
(Ahnaf, 2018).
The government of Indonesia has developed the policy to update the curriculum of schools to
develop harmonious relations within society. It has made continuous evolution in the policies
of multiculturalism to face the challenges in the changing environment and develop
harmonious relationships in the country. It becomes the greater challenge for the government
of Indonesia to politically unite the 300 ethnic groups who speak in 650 diverse languages.
The country faced the challenge to serve the minorities at the inner islands and the population
was asymmetrically scattered (Ahnaf, 2018).
From the above analysis, it is concluded that multiculturalism is the concept where the
diverse cultural and the racial groups get equal opportunities and the rights and none of the
groups are ignored. It is the coexistence of the diverse groups in culture, religions, racial,
which is manifested in communication styles, values and pattern of thinking.

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It is analysed that Australia has a high acceptance of the diverse culture and the government
make continuous efforts to provide social justice and develop economic efficiency of the
country. It aims to provide justice and makes the laws where discrimination is not lawful.
While Indonesia is also a multicultural country, where there are 300 ethnic groups with 650
diverse languages. Each island consists of various ethnic groups and the government of
Indonesia aims to develop harmonious relationships in the country by developing the vision
of unity in diversity. All the diverse groups are considered as one. The government faces the
challenges of maintaining political unity in this diverse group. Both countries adopt the
multiculturalism approach to provide justice and equal opportunities to all the groups of
people and foster to develop the growth of the country by developing a diverse range of
groups.

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