Overview of Multiculturalism

Discuss about the Multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism is a sociological term that deals with the cosmopolitan nature of a society. There are three terms that included in the term such as sociology, political philosophy and colloquial use. The term is interchangeably known as the cultural pluralism. When collaboration has been observed in between several ethnic groups and mixed up with each other without sacrificing their own cultural identity (Kymlicka 2015). In other words, it can be recognised as a place where different ethnic cultures existed without affecting each other. Multiculturalism can be observed in different countries like India, Australia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa and so on. The traditional cultures and foreigner cultural groups can be observed very frequently in different parts of the world (John 2016). According to certain cultural researchers, multiculturalism is a legally controlled immigration process. On the other hand, if the term can be identified from the political philosophy, it will include certain ideologies and policies regarding different cultural tradition and that can give birth of cultural diversities. However, in multiculturalism, three types of cultural integration can be observed such as social integration, cultural assimilation and racial segregation. Kenan Malik has defined the term as “society transformed by mass immigration”. In case of the multiculturalism, all the religions and ethnic groups are working with each other and introduce the system of monoculture (Ng and Metz 2015). Literally, the term multiculturalism promotes the idea of distinctiveness of various cultures that are mixed up to each other by the mean of social integration and racial segmentation. The concept has certain positive as well as negative impacts. In this system, a unity in between various kinds of cultures can be observed. On the other hand, there is a sheer possibility of cultural conflict present. According to the right-wingers, the term multiculturalism gives birth of cultural suicide. However, multiculturalism takes place when the citizens of a country accept to adopt the cultural immigration ideally (Wright et al. 2017). The concept can be practiced only after getting permission from the government of that particular country. The nature of multiculturalism is ancient. Cultural diversity was present in Greece, Ottoman Empire and in Arabs. However, the objective of multiculturalism is not only diverse the cultural society but to protect the cultural diversity as well. Cultural diversity can be possible through various aspects such as religious diversity, linguistic diversity, territorial diversity and racial diversity. The concept of effectiveness of multiculturalism on the society has been observed for the first time in Europe and North America. The cultural concept has begun to spread over the Western portion during twentieth century. An attempt was made to protect the neglected customs and religious thought. A revision was made to bring a change in the Eurocentric perspective that overemphasizes the charity of white European majestic powers and underestimate the contributions made by indigenous people and avoid the discrimination regarding the colour of the people. Additionally, along with the other cultural ethnic groups, other related fields have been added to have a special outcome that has been ignored before.   One of such examples is the National Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States. Certain leaning mentality of the minority community has been observed regarding the historical, philosophical and arts with an intention to recognised their multicultural idea to the broader world.

Multiculturalism in Different Countries

It is no doubt to state that Australia is a multicultural country. The multicultural policy taken by Australia has embraced the shared values and enriching traditions (Noble and Watkins 2014). The supporters of the multicultural thoughts were motivated by the relevant atmosphere of Australia and it has been observed that the religious tradition of Australia is practised within the purview of Australian legal parameter and the cultures are free from all the related encumbrances like the discrimination.

It has been observed by the religious researcher that many Australians are using other languages as their communication medium and therefore, a unity of diversity has been observed regarding the languages. A similarity has been observed between the cultural diversity and the landscape of the Australia. the policy of multiculturalism has not only created impacts on the culture of the country, but on the food, lifestyle and experience of the country.

In Australia, unity can be observed among the other diverse cultural and societal backgrounds (Harris-Hogan, Barrelle and Zammit 2016). The most ancient residents of Australia are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have settled for tens of thousands of years. Australia was a colonial country and therefore, most of the citizens of modern Australia are immigrants or the descendants of them who had come over the country during or after the colonial period. In the lights of the above mentioned cultural diversification, threat regarding the social harmony and protection of the previously practised cultural has been emerged. The then government of Australia has taken certain policies to curb all these threats and made an attempt to deal with the cultural and societal threats amicably. According to the 2011 census, 26% of the population were born abroad and a further 20% had one parent born overseas. It has been reported that the Aboriginal Australians make up approximately 2.5% of the total population. All these things have been given the birth of socio-cultural diversity.  However, during the colonial period, the white policy system taken by the colonial government had created discrimination in the society. However, changes had been made after World War II with certain changes to immigration policy. It is a fact that before the settlement of the European communities in Australia, diversified cultural background were present among the aboriginals and the linguistic parameters were extended to almost four hundred different cultures. According to the 2006 census, almost 150 languages are being practised practically at this time.  The modern Australia has been formed by various immigrants excluding the British. However, the concept of double citizenship has been started by the British empire.

Impacts of Multiculturalism

Sri Lanka is a homogenous country and the diversification has been originated due to race, ethnicity, religion, language and caste or a combination of any of them. Consequently, state formations are made up of a multiplicity of cultural communities. The inability to manage the demands and aspirations of cultural communities within states has become the primary cause for conflicts in the world (Young 2016). This has led most countries to explore strategies to ‘manage’ multiple cultural communities within their states in order to develop inclusive and stable societies.

Stable democracies, particularly in the West had managed to evolve inclusive and stable societal states until the arrival of immigrants from various parts of the world to meet labour shortages in these countries following the conclusion of World War II. Newly independent countries too that had been stable prior to and during colonization were affected by issues of multiculturalism and its problems. Faced with the common problem of dealing with cultural diversity, many countries began to label themselves as multicultural states, going to the extent of calling themselves multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious etc.

However, according to Kenan Malik, the appeal of multiculturalism is fast fading today because its “…policies accept as a given that societies are diverse, yet they implicitly assume that such diversity ends at the edges of minority communities. They seek to institutionalize diversity by putting people into ethnic and cultural boxes – into singular, homogeneous Muslim community, for example – and defining their needs and rights accordingly. Such policies, in other words, have helped create the very divisions they were meant to manage”.

In Sri Lanka’s case this has led to treatment of Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim and Plantation Tamil communities as homogeneous groups, not allowing for the unique diversities within each of them. For instance, at the ethnic level members of the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities are majorities in some parts of the country and are minorities in others. One could assume that such ethnic distinctions also mirror language distinctions as well. In addition, a variety of other distinctions exist within each of these three communities; a process that could be carried to an extreme. In such a setting, attempts to develop policies and entitlements based on distinct group identities such as Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim would marginalize large swaths within each community precipitating discontent and frustration. Furthermore, competition among cultural communities would be inevitable, and outcomes that lead to violence would be interpreted as racism (Guo and Wong 2015). Therefore, the lesson for Sri Lanka from the failure of multiculturalism in the West is to not develop policies based on discrete group identities. Sri Lankan parents should be free to decide the kind of education they opt for their children as in Article 26 clause 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and not compel children to seek instruction based on mother tongue (i.e., Sinhala or Tamil), as currently practiced, because it institutionalizes separateness. Similarly, land should be allocated on the basis of individual need and not in order to protect ethnic concentrations in defined areas (Davis 2015). Attempts to institutionalize separateness by seeking international support to organize a referendum for the Tamil community to exercise the right of self-determination should fail constitutionally since per Article 4 (e) of the 1978 Constitution, franchise is “exercisable at every Referendum by every citizen” and not by a select few”.

Multiculturalism Policies in Australia and Sri Lanka

Based on the above mentioned facts, certain differences have been observed in between the multiculturalism policies of Australia and Sri Lanka. The first differences are that in Sri Lanka, racism is observed in between the majority and minority. In Australia, there is a problem cropped up regarding the white and black citizens, but the government has taken many policies to curb the same. Additionally, Cultural rivalry among the Sinhala and Muslims are common in Sri Lanka. The policies taken by the Sri Lankan government are underdeveloped in nature. Most of the policies were in vain to demolish the separateness from the society, whereas in Australia, the main objective of multiculturalism is to protect the minor communities and established unity among diversity. Further, the Australian government has taken many steps to protect the land of the aboriginals and allocate proper land to them. On the other hand, the land in Sri Lanka is allocated on the basis of individual need and not for providing protection to the minor groups or to protect the ethnic culture. These are the basic differences in between the multicultural policies of Sri Lanka and Australia. Considering the objective of the principle of the multiculturalism, it can be stated that Sri Lanka has failed to comply with that. It is a fact that different cultural groups are present in Australia, but the intention of the theory has not been fulfilled properly (Young 2016). In case of Australia, the government has taken many policies to comply with the objectives and get succeed to certain extent.     

References

Davis, C.P., 2015. Speaking Conflict: Ideological Barriers to Bilingual Policy Implementation in Civil War Sri Lanka. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 46(2), pp.95-112.

Guo, S. and Wong, L. eds., 2015. Revisiting Multiculturalism in Canada: Theories, Policies and Debates. Springer.

Harris-Hogan, S., Barrelle, K. and Zammit, A., 2016. What is countering violent extremism? Exploring CVE policy and practice in Australia. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 8(1), pp.6-24.

John, B., 2016. Comparative analysis of Canadian multiculturalism policy and the multiculturalism policies of other countries. Psychology in Russia: State of the art, 9(1).

Kymlicka, W., 2015. The three lives of multiculturalism. In Revisiting multiculturalism in Canada (pp. 17-35). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.

Ng, E.S. and Metz, I., 2015. Multiculturalism as a strategy for national competitiveness: The case for Canada and Australia. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), pp.253-266.

Ng, E.S. and Metz, I., 2015. Multiculturalism as a strategy for national competitiveness: The case for Canada and Australia. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), pp.253-266.

Noble, G. and Watkins, M., 2014. The ‘schooled identities’ of Australian multiculturalism: professional vision, reflexive civility and education for a culturally complex world. In Advancing race and ethnicity in education (pp. 162-177). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Watkins, M., Lean, G. and Noble, G., 2016. Multicultural education: the state of play from an Australian perspective. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(1), pp.46-66.

Wright, M., Johnston, R., Citrin, J. and Soroka, S., 2017. Multiculturalism and Muslim accommodation: Policy and predisposition across three political contexts. Comparative Political Studies, 50(1), pp.102-132.

Young, C., 2016. Ethnic diversity and public policy: A comparative inquiry. Springer