Don't go back to where you came from

Many earnest books were published about multiculturalism in the 1980s and 1990s, mainly feel-good stories that corresponded with the agreed bipartisan multicultural policy that existed. This perception, if not reality, shifted markedly in 2001, indirectly because of Tampa and 9/11, but also because the Howard government was ambivalent, if not downright hostile, to the policy.

In Don’t Go Back to Where You Came From: Australia’s Multicultural Genius, Tim Southphommasane stakes a claim for the overwhelming success of multiculturalism in Australia, particularly when compared to European countries.

As he puts it: ‘The key is that multiculturalism has always been a citizenship policy and has always been about integration. But it has only rarely been understood this way: for supporters, it has been just about lifestyle and pho/laksa/kebabs/souvlaki; for its critics, it has been about cultural relativism, ethnic ghettos, reverse racism and the introduction of Sharia law’.