Australia's success story of building a harmonious nation of immigrants is now threatened by the rise of 'hard' multiculturalism.
Hard multiculturalism opposes social integration by pursuing a program of cultural diversity which does not tolerate any divergent points of view.
When hard multiculturalists say we must treat controversial topics such as forced marriages and female circumcision with 'cultural sensitivity,' they begin to cast doubt on the very idea of a core national culture.
Of course, Australia is a cohesive and peaceful country. Multiculturalism is still popular here according to the 2013 Scanlon Foundation's Mapping Social Cohesion report. Our support for a tolerant, multicultural society sits at a healthy 84%.
Yet hard multiculturalists say the 'fair go' is no longer available equally to all Australians. The answer is for the state to manage cultural and ethnic diversity.
There are even demands for the Federal Parliament to pass a Multicultural Act to make sure multicultural policies are set in statute.
Hard multiculturalism is now posing questions about just how public policy promotes the peaceful coexistence of diverse people in one society.
What began as a sincere desire to eliminate racism and promote tolerance has turned into a determined drive to promote diversity as a moral and political end.
This determination has become an obsession.
Diversity is no longer something that exists naturally, as you might expect in a country that by 2010 had become the third-most culturally diverse nation in the world (after Singapore and Hong Kong).
Instead, diversity has become a moral objective promoted as an end in itself – precisely what is intended in the proposed Multicultural Act.
This obsession with diversity threatens individual liberty because it promotes the interests of particular groups over those of the individual.
The debate about hard multiculturalism is about the weight we should afford cultures other than the prevailing Australian one.
But in pursuing a vested notion of social justice, the demand for equal recognition should never trump the demand for liberty.
The fairest way to accommodate differences is by maintaining a stable framework of laws and institutions to guarantee the freedom of the individual.
It is time for the fetish of diversity to end and the advance of hard multiculturalism to be checked.
Peter Kurti is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, and author of Multiculturalism and the Fetish of Diversity, released on 10 December 2013.
Home > Commentary > Opinion > Hard multiculturalism’s rise in Australia
Hard multiculturalism’s rise in Australia
Hard multiculturalism opposes social integration by pursuing a program of cultural diversity which does not tolerate any divergent points of view.
When hard multiculturalists say we must treat controversial topics such as forced marriages and female circumcision with 'cultural sensitivity,' they begin to cast doubt on the very idea of a core national culture.
Of course, Australia is a cohesive and peaceful country. Multiculturalism is still popular here according to the 2013 Scanlon Foundation's Mapping Social Cohesion report. Our support for a tolerant, multicultural society sits at a healthy 84%.
Yet hard multiculturalists say the 'fair go' is no longer available equally to all Australians. The answer is for the state to manage cultural and ethnic diversity.
There are even demands for the Federal Parliament to pass a Multicultural Act to make sure multicultural policies are set in statute.
Hard multiculturalism is now posing questions about just how public policy promotes the peaceful coexistence of diverse people in one society.
What began as a sincere desire to eliminate racism and promote tolerance has turned into a determined drive to promote diversity as a moral and political end.
This determination has become an obsession.
Diversity is no longer something that exists naturally, as you might expect in a country that by 2010 had become the third-most culturally diverse nation in the world (after Singapore and Hong Kong).
Instead, diversity has become a moral objective promoted as an end in itself – precisely what is intended in the proposed Multicultural Act.
This obsession with diversity threatens individual liberty because it promotes the interests of particular groups over those of the individual.
The debate about hard multiculturalism is about the weight we should afford cultures other than the prevailing Australian one.
But in pursuing a vested notion of social justice, the demand for equal recognition should never trump the demand for liberty.
The fairest way to accommodate differences is by maintaining a stable framework of laws and institutions to guarantee the freedom of the individual.
It is time for the fetish of diversity to end and the advance of hard multiculturalism to be checked.
Peter Kurti is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, and author of Multiculturalism and the Fetish of Diversity, released on 10 December 2013.
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