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At the crossroads... One Nation

Robert Birrell.

Dr Robert Birrell gives his view on multiculturalism being a way of facilitating integration.

Created:

1994

Date Added:

19 July 2002

Source:

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

--

Length:

31 secs

Transcript

DR ROBERT BIRRELL
Former member, National Population Council, and Bureau of Immigration Research Advisory Council

I think multiculturalism is ideally a way of facilitating integration. That is, break down barriers between people, and in that sense, facilitate interaction. I still believe in the idea that we should be creating the notion of one people, sharing a sense of identity.

Where I would be critical of the more recent thrust of multiculturalism is that it has become a policy, at least in the eyes of some ethnic community leaders, of justifying cultural maintenance through successive generations.

CONTINUATION OF INTERVIEW AS TEXT

Multiculturalism, in the sense that it asserted to Australians that, “Look, you must stop treating people in a disrespectful fashion, you must accord them respect in the wider community”, was justified. That’s an aspect of multiculturalism which I am in favour of.

We’ve now got a group of ethnic ideologues who are seeking to redefine Australia as a country of diverse communities, and that all we share in common is some loose commitment to democratic ideals and a common legal structure. This is an ideology which justifies a perpetuation of ethnic communities more or less forever. Now that’s a long way from the ideal of multiculturalism as I saw it first articulated and that I would support...

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994