Multiculturalism vs Citizenship in Australian Politics: An Essay

This essay examines the shift in Australian politics from multiculturalism to an emphasis on citizenship, exploring the underlying factors and implications of this transition. It discusses how Australia, initially embracing multiculturalism, now grapples with anxieties surrounding its diverse population. The essay analyzes the evolution of multiculturalism as a policy and conceptual framework, highlighting its goals of recognizing identities and integrating migrants. It further elaborates on government policies designed to support immigrants and ensure equal opportunities. The essay also considers public opinion, particularly regarding immigration and attitudes towards different cultural groups, including Muslims. It references surveys that reveal both support for multiculturalism and concerns about its impact. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of cultural diversity for Australia's future and the challenges of navigating the complexities of immigration and cultural integration, suggesting that political leaders should embrace multiculturalism for its potential to foster innovation and achievement.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Introduction to Government and Politics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Multiculturalism to citizenship in Australian politics
According to Metz, Australia is considered to be as that country where an ugly
discrimination has been rising. Political leaders were not given much attention in the interest
of good sense (Ng and Metz 2015). Australia have been shifting away from multiculturalism
to citizenship in the era of politics. People of Australia have embraced life in the new
multiethnic way but the constituency of the situation has grown steadily. The Australian
theory of multiculturalism had been challenged as a policy and as well as a conceptual
framework. Australia draws on the media commentary along with the work of specific and
well-known researchers Thus, the values of the Australians and citizens gave their opinion on
the existing anxieties about the portions of the population of Australia. The essay concludes
stating how this country have shifted away to multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism was a theory and concept of how to reply to the rising ethnocultural
diversity of the society of Australia. It had resulted in the mass immigration over the last few
decades and had therefore abandoned the racially restricted policies of immigration. The term
multiculturalism refers to a number of policies and cultural diversities that coherent ideals of
the society. This concept has had plenty of goals over the years, which included the
recognition of identities and integration of migrants. However, this concept has taken place in
Australia and has criticized it as a diverse policy. The Government of Australia have
determined these under the policies of multicultural that play a vital role in the process of
settling the immigrants. This theory explained this as the way for settling the migrants,
welfare and social-cultural policy in Australia (Bloemraad 2015). This Government had
established a vast variety of multiculturalist ideas, policies and concepts into the advisory
systems. The Minister had determined these policies and rules for providing a reform agenda
to address the welfare problems (Peucker, Roose and Akbarzadeh 2014). The acceptance of
the nature and kind of the multicultural Australian Society, it can be implied that the

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government had determined the values in of the immigrants as well as the existing citizens of
the country (Meer and Modood 2016). The report that was created globally stated and
concluded that all the members of the society must be provided with equal opportunities to
realize the full potential and they should also have free access to the services and programs
(Pruitt 2016). Secondly, every individual must be able to balance his or her respected kind of
culture, which did not have any kind of demerit. It helps in encouraging and understanding
other cultures. Thirdly, the programs and services that are available to the entire community
of the country should fulfill the needs of the migrants. Proper and special programs and
services must be present for ensuring the equality. Lastly, proper programs and services were
designed in full session with the clients involved and they should be helpful. The
Government agreed upon these policies and all the citizens were informed about it. The
Australian Muslims were supported and they were made to be more integrated and connected
with the other citizens present in the community or the country. In terms of employment,
jobs, education, activities it is regarded as a significant method of prohibiting violence
causing against Australia (Tan 2017).
This work began a decade back in 2007 where Markus had polled for more than
40,000 people to find what everyone thinks about the Australia and its future. His work was
to move around the country by briefing politicians, commentators and bureaucrats before
forming the each new report. He was cautious about and against both despair and optimism.
The swings of opinion were not considered to be dangerous as it’s been recognized here.
However, the present report states that maximum number of Australians declines the notion
of selecting immigrants by race (Blair 2015). Majority people of the country have faith in the
fact that multiculturalism and believe that it is good for the country. There are approximately
74% of individuals who had declined to choose immigrants based on the religion. The
number of migrants Australia takes every year is either considered to be too low or perfect.

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The majority support of mass immigration is remarkable as it helps the country. This is
because of the global financial crisis especially and the political parties involved everywhere
had demanded the governments of Australia to not allow the foreigners. Marcus had also
observed that the concept of Brexit and President Trump of the United States had rode the
fear to victory (Moran 2017). The numbers of immigration did not move much. It was used as
a method or measure for making the changes in Australia. However, Scanlon had done his
survey for the last one decade and have put effort in making the changes. There are people
who were held out to be hostile to Islam. Plenty of Australians were rising by being
unaffected and falling fears of terrorism (Levey 2017). Therefore, in such a situation, there is
an alert possibility that in such a sensitive territory, individuals give response to the political
leaders. The number of individuals who got disturbed by the Muslims was not a greater
number. As a society, Australia was doing well. They were under the pressure and were also
coping up with the challenges (Hébert 2016). Many have been through the negative effect of
immigration. However, adapting multiculturalism is not considered to be an easy task by the
existing members of the country. People of the country wanted a resource especially for the
people who wanted to work for the constituency and the size. There was a collapse of belief
in the government of Australia. Hence, it does not leave any traditional embankment against
the panic of race (Ng and Metz 2015). In the year of 2015, as per the Scanlon survey, they
found the condition to be worse for Australia’s African community. Maximum number of
individuals have reported of being the targets of abuse or worse as compared to the previous
year. This was a contradictory statement to the concept of multiculturalism. This was not due
to the reason that everyone all across the population is associating themselves in the process
of discrimination. Although there have been consequences in this concept of multiculturalism
and the environment legitimates that (Walsh 2014). According to the political narratives there
is only one nation that is considered to be the losers in the modern economy. His study states

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something different that their contempt for government and their deep loyalty lies with
Australia. The people of Australia voted their political leaders based on how they want their
way of life and culture (Meer and Modood 2016). Followers of Hanson had revealed of not
being disturbed by the change of the climate or by social issues and drugs that are faced by
the country. People of Australia were never really worried or troubled about the difference
and gap between the rich and the poor. Instead they wanted to help and support the
governments when it needed. They are not aware of the national security of the country.
People of Australia have been applying these methods by executing the changes across the
country. Individuals feel secured in the environment of their country. As observed, hostility is
only one existing board to immigration. Immigration is treated to be the most challenging
issue faced by Australia (Peucker, Roose and Akbarzadeh 2014). It is believed that
immigrants should be declined based on the race and religion of those individuals. They have
also been discriminated based on these two factors. However, they do not allocate such belief
in majority of the Australians that welcoming immigrants from all the different countries will
make them strong and a powerful country. It can be stated that it is a good thing for the
citizens of Australia if they consider the fact that immigrants or people from different
countries make them strong (Bloemraad and Wright 2014).
As per the theory of Marcus, Australia is considered a country of the young.
Maximum number of the young crowd believes that immigrants from all the location of the
world is what makes Australia powerful. Very less number of people have opposed and have
negative feelings for the Muslims (Bloemraad and Wright 2014). Other than that, 94% of
young citizens believes the fact that multiculturalism helps, supports and makes the country
strong. This will be regarded as a positive point and a good idea for the benefit of the
Australia (Chisari 2015). It was not just about multiculturalism but Marcus stated that they
were dealing with the occurrence of education and of the people associating with the outer

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world with the help of internet. This is because the young people belong to a different
generation as compared to the generation of their parents. Therefore, people belonging from
the young generation will add prosperity to the country (Ruez 2016). Young people are the
considered to be the hope of the country. This generation does not consider the physical
differences and race, which did not matter to them. They do not discriminate individuals
based on their race and religion even if they belong from a different culture. This shows how
the society have shifted and adapted new approaches in handling immigrants. A politician
should be bothered about his country and how to make sufficient developments in the future.
Under the policies of Australia that are subjected to law, every Australian individual
have the right to express their personal beliefs and culture. The Government funds for settling
the services that identifies the urgency and need for a few particular programs that are based
on the principles and rules of participation. Presently, every Australian state and the existing
territories have certain regulations that deal with the concept of multiculturalism. All the
Australian state and territories governments have set up agencies and bodies that deal with
the issues of the cultural diversity (Westlake 2016). As per the jurisdictions, there are
approaches that are applied depending on the nature of the multicultural policy, principles
and structures. The 2000 Act, explained an array of public authorities as per which the
services of multicultural deliver the obligations that can be applied in the state owned
undertakings. The concept of multiculturalism has been expanded in this Act (Johns,
Mansouri and Lobo 2015). However, in the past one decade, Australia there have been
compared to Europe and America that have been through the public anxiety that acted as a
threat to the social confusion. This concept has been treated as both a concept and a theory.
Hence, in this theory it was determined and argued that majority number of supporters of
multiculturalism had divergence between the methods and approaches that were applied
(Flew et al. 2017).

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It can be concluded stating that the Australian values have been shifted from the
concept of multiculturalism. The last policy of the Government was related to the concept of
established security that concerned about the consequences of terrorism as per the authors
Bloemraad and Wright 2014. Therefore, the political leaders should not have any difficulty in
presenting the multicultural Australia. Australia should not be stressed on the cultural
diversity of the country as multiculturalism brings in innovation, ideas, achievement and
skills that are suppose to be beneficial for the country. There have been confusion existing on
multiculturalism that focuses on the policy of immigration. Different people have different
cultural and occupational backgrounds. Plenty of individuals have expressed their concern
about the immigrants. The confusion states that whether and how the Australian governments
will associate themselves with the concept of multiculturalism in responding to the evolving
nature of Australian society at present and in future. This concept is good for the country, as
it does not create any kind of confusion or trouble among the citizens of the country. It
concludes stating that the research of the Committee must be positive about Australia for the
growth, development and the process of implementation to an updated comprehensive
multicultural policy. It highlights the increasingly cultural diverse of the society and
suggested that Australia should strengthen the dimensions of race and culture. By doing so
there will not be much differences between cultures existing in Australia.

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