Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
areas of immigration and multiculturalism. The term ‘multiculturalism’ as a
defining component of national identity was also losing support.
In the late 1990s, questions were raised about whether an ethnically diverse
nation can also be a unified nation. According to Ruth Fincher, over the years
there have been two opinion groups. First, there are those who support the idea
that ‘an ethnically diverse population, its growth fuelled by sustained and nondiscriminatory
immigration, benefits the “nation” by improving its economic
resources, its social breadth, its international linkages, and its citizenship’. 44 Second,
there are those who suggest that ethnic diversity weakens the character of national
identity. According to Fincher, ‘theirs is a view of essential Australianness that
sees a national character as having been formed amongst Anglo-Australians from
the time of English settlement’. 45 Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA, the
latter view has become more prominent in the Australian media because of fears of
Australia becoming a fragmented society.
The rise of transnationalism tends to encourage states to reassert their authority
in shaping national identity and national citizenship. 46 The frequency of terrorist
attacks has also led to governments reaffirming national identity and establishing
new citizenship obligations. As a result, Eleonore Kofman argues that more than
ever ‘the state is asserting its role as protector of national identity and social
cohesion’. 47 For instance, the world’s leading democracies began to apply more
pressure on migrants to integrate, assimilate and conform to civic values. 48 One
of the casualties of the new focus on civic integration was multiculturalism. The
new assertiveness of liberal states to impose liberal values, such as democracy
and gender equality, coincided with a retreat from multiculturalism in theory and
policy. 49
The shift to civic integration was partly due to the pressure to maintain a
secure environment and also to obtain public consent for large-scale influxes of
skilled migrants. 50 In Australia, in 2006, there were suggestions in the media that
a national consensus supporting high immigration would be at risk unless the
Australian public tackled the key issues of common values, social cohesion and
multiculturalism. 51 Furthermore, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, former Prime Minister John Howard and opposition leader Kim Beazley
led national debates on immigration, values and terror. Howard said, ‘people in
Australia are in no doubt that extreme Islam is responsible for terrorism’ and Kim
Beazley called for ‘all new Australians to sign up to Australian values when they
44 Fincher 2001, 27.
45 Fincher 2001, 28.
46 Holton 1998; Kofman 2005.
47 Kofman 2005, 454–5.
48 Kofman 2005.
49 Joppke 2004.
50 Joppke 2004.
51 Albrechtsen 2005.
420