Introduction

Australia has allowed seven million immigrants into their country. It is a vibrant and multicultural country, identifying more than 270 ancestries. The statistics of 2013 state that, “overseas migration has represented 60% of Australia’s population growth”, proving the country’s rich cultural diversity. Immigrants greatly contribute to Australia’s economy and help the country get fiscal benefits periodically (Abu-Laban & Nath, 2020). Multiculturalism consists of three aspects-diversity, ideology, and policy. The study discusses the benefits received from multiculturalism, the minimum risks of the issue, and also the positive sides and impact on society. This study also discusses the impact and influences of multiculturalism caused because of immigrants and its effect on the workplace.

Main Body

An article named Finding a Place to Call Home: Immigration in Australia, discusses the aspects of multiculturalism, and how Australia linked multiculturalism to immigration in the workplace (Dockery et al., 2019). According to the authors, multiculturalism is a reality in this country. This research states the Australian population includes a large number of immigrants, though they differ in cultural identity while working with their peers belonging to this nation get to learn more about other’s cultures and the immigrants also take in the nation’s cultural practices, creating diversity. Australia has given shelter to refugees and asylum seekers and has taken care of their social and emotional well-being since they have settled in this country. This study mentions that – ” Labour force participation is higher for migrants”, ” Health care and social assistance sector has the largest share of immigrants”, and “the educational attainment of Australia’s foreign-born population is higher than that of the natives “. While discussing their well-being the authors said that they have maintained their cultural origin while trying to adapt to Australia’s mainstream culture. The nation provides advantages to the foreign-born population over their nations but the health advantages disappear for older people.

Though bias exists in a few scenarios, there are minimal problems faced by immigrants. In Australia, “the labor market outcomes both of migrants and native-born Australians and as a contributor to the country’s economic trajectory”. According to the article Hyper‐selectivity of immigrants and generational differences in occupational status: Evidence for Asian groups in Australia., the highly recognized “immigrant intakes can not only deliver benefits in terms of their immediate injection of necessary skills but also reproduce an intergenerational dividend of high educational attainment and high occupational status in subsequent generations” (De Alwis, Parr, & Guo, 2022). Therefore, this article also states that the immigrants have contributed more to the nation and the natives. Cultures of different countries have flown into Australia and created cultural diversity in the nation. The immigrants have maintained their cultural origin and have absorbed Australia’s culture to prove the diversity in the population. The immigrants have positively affected the nation’s growth and diversity, there has been no negative influence on the country and its natives. Australia has successfully linked multiculturalism to immigration.

Lim states in one of his articles that the Australian federal government has adopted multicultural policies and these policies “have reflected the political orientation of the incumbent government” (Lim, 2018). “The trajectory has been mostly neoliberal”. These steps were taken to safeguard the interests of the immigrants and reduce the chances of inequality after settling in this nation. They have tried to introduce new norms targeting to bring social change and increase social understanding. The laws made have unified people and made the natives accept the cultural diversity brought in by them. Australia’s federal Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) enacted in 1975, has helped eliminate Racism from the nation, bringing equality to Australian society. The Acts have worked for the racial minorities being discriminated against in the workplace during their employment or while working. These laws have supported diversity and encouraged multiculturalism in the nation and have linked multiculturalism to immigrants.

This has reduced the cases of discrimination on racism and ethnicity. The immigrants have then received “equal opportunity, valued participation, valued recognition, and belonging”. Some contradictions have also been found. Vertovec and Wessendorf, have criticized the process of Multiculturalism adopted by various nations. The critics have mostly judged them from the political point of view. They have opposed multiculturalism and interculturalism. A study discusses different aspects of multiculturalism and they are – “Difference, Equality, Ethno-religious groups, National Identity and Dialogue”. Multiculturalism was an issue focusing on migrants and their followers to ensure that they could settle peacefully after the phase of migration. In this country, racism was a vital issue in the “inception and development of Multiculturalism” (Fethi Mansouri & Tariq Modood, 2021).

The article Racial Inclusion in Education: An Australian Context, highlights the need for racial inclusion for immigrants in a society almost new to them. The study draws attention to the fact that they deserve to be accepted and included. It has been researched that the nation lacks proper racism awareness, political or administrative measures, and any kind of strategic ideas related to anti-racism (Fahd, & Venkatraman, 2019). Though this concentrates on the issue of racism in the Educational sector, the workers gain the same experiences at their workplace. In Australia, discrimination of race has been directly connected to migration for a very long time, and therefore, immigrants from different races face – “entry exclusion”, “regular and continuing participation exclusion” and “meaningful learning exclusion”. This study has addressed the issue of racial exclusion faced by the immigrants.

Though it is impossible to eradicate the issue of Racism, the administration must use a strategic framework for racial inclusion. The policymakers of Australia have adopted certain laws, to weaken the roots of racism but social awareness must be spread to reduce the exclusion. The educators and the government are examining the ways to eradicate the issues of discrimination and they might achieve their goal in a few years. Another article Determinants of migrant career success: A Study of recent skilled migrants in Australia mentions that many skilled migrants are unable to experience upward career growth after migration to Australia (Ng et al., 2019). Even if they are highly skilled and immensely educated, they are from backgrounds that don’t have fluency in English and therefore face challenges while participating in the nation’s economy. This has led to underemployment. The immigrants from the labor market enjoy success and contribute well to Australian funds.

Migrants have always experienced discrimination because they lacked recognition and any foreign qualification, had no previous working experience in this country, and also had zero knowledge of English fluency. As a result, they started facing issues with employment in this nation. In the whole process, cultural diversity was well maintained and Australia has successfully tackled multiculturalism and linked it well to the immigrants.

Conclusion

Immigrants across the world have brought multiculturalism and interculturalism to Australia, which has resulted in cultural diversity (Collins, 2020). Despite facing certain discriminations, the government has paved the way for them to stay in this nation with proper safety and security. The natives have absorbed many cultures from the immigrants and they have adjusted to a different nation keeping in mind their cultural origin. Workplaces have started practicing programs from different cultures and also invited immigrants to include and participate in cultural programs. This study has addressed the perks and cons of immigration and how the nation linked multiculturalism to immigration, and it is seen that the nation provides enough advantages to the immigrants, looks after their well-being, and encourages cultural diversity for the betterment of the country.

References

Abu-Laban, Y., & Nath, N. (2020). Citizenship, multiculturalism, and immigration: mapping the complexities of inclusion and exclusion through intersectionality. In The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, sexuality, and Canadian Politics (pp. 507-527). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Retrieved on 13th June 2022, from:  https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-49240-3_25

Collins, J. (2020). Immigration and class: the Australian experience. In Ethnicity, class and gender in Australia (pp. 1-27). Routledge. Retrieved on 12th June 2022, from:  https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003115540-1/immigration-class-australian-experience-jock-collins

De Alwis, S., Parr, N., & Guo, F. (2022). Hyper‐selectivity of immigrants and generational differences in occupational status: Evidence for Asian groups in Australia. Population, Space and Place, 28(1), e2494. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2494

Dockery, A. M., Duncan, A. S., Mavisakalyan, A., Nguyen, T., & Seymour, R. (2019). Finding a Place to Call Home: Immigration in Australia (No. FS07). Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School. Retrieved on 12th June 2022, from:  https://ideas.repec.org/p/ozl/bcecrs/fs07.html

Fahd, K., & Venkatraman, S. (2019). Racial inclusion in education: An Australian context. Economies, 7(2), 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies7020027

Fethi Mansouri & Tariq Modood (2021).The complementarity of multiculturalism and interculturalism: theory backed by Australian evidence, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44:16, 1-20. 10.1080/01419870.2020.1713391

Lim, L. L. (2018). A multicultural act for Australia. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 10(2), 47-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v10i2.5981

Ng, E., Rajendran, D., Sears, G. J., & Ayub, N. (2019). Determinants of migrant career success: A study of recent skilled migrants in Australia.  https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12586