Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull celebrates Australia as ‘the most successful multicultural nation in the world’.
This is a grand claim and important to a sense of identity and belonging, but at times it seems that multiculturalism is more an article of faith than a work in progress. What it really means in the twenty-first century is the focus of Griffith Review 61: Who We Are, which will examine both the opportunities offered and the complexities involved.
The nation’s population has virtually doubled since 1975, and in recent years the rules around migration have been altered significantly. Those who have chosen to make their home here in the past have changed Australia, and waves of new arrivals continue to transform the country. Yet the apparent certainties of Australia as a permanent settler society are giving way to the precarious churn of temporary migration.
This edition will give voice to this changing reality, explore the big issues of belonging, citizenship and participation, and tease out how contemporary Australia might evolve.
This is a rich field, replete with policy questions and personal narratives. It is a success story, but the full picture is complex, and past achievements no guarantee of future results.
The nation’s boundaries are imaginary as much as physical, and constantly contested by an unsettled history and a shifting present. Renewed assertions of national identity run parallel to the increasing globalisation of opportunity and threat, as if the more fluid the world becomes, the greater the urge to hold onto something fixed and stable. Yet do we really know who ‘we’ are? Where does Australia begin and end? Who can claim to belong and who can be legitimately excluded?
Julianne Schultz AM FAHA is the founding editor of Griffith Review, the award-winning literary and public affairs quarterly journal.
Peter Mares is contributing editor with the online magazine Inside Story and senior moderator with The Cranlana Programme. Peter was a broadcaster with the ABC for twenty-five years, and is the author of two books – the award-winning Borderline: Australia’s Response to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Wake of the Tampa and Not Quite Australian: How Temporary Migration Is Changing the Nation.
‘The new issue of Griffith Review is about the perennially newsworthy subjects of immigration and multiculturalism, and the lead essay by James Button and Abul Rizvi is essential reading.’ Saturday Paper
‘An eclectic, thought-provoking and uniformly well-written collection.’ Australian
‘This is commentary of a high order. The prose is unfailingly polished; the knowledge and expertise of writers impressive.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘For intelligent, well-written quarterly commentary…Griffith Review remains the gold standard.’ Honest History
‘Over the years, it is the emphasis on reportage that has made Griffith Review so consistently interesting and worth reading. Its regular dispatches from people working in the community—whether teachers, doctors, social workers or whoever—have given it the kind of lived-in vitality that few other publications can offer.’ Saturday Paper
About the Author :
Julianne Schultz AM FAHA is the founding editor of Griffith Review, the award-winning literary and public affairs quarterly journal.
Peter Mares is contributing editor with the online magazine Inside Story and senior moderator with The Cranlana Programme. Peter was a broadcaster with the ABC for twenty-five years, and is the author of two books – the award-winning Borderline: Australia’s Response to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Wake of the Tampa and Not Quite Australian: How Temporary Migration Is Changing the Nation.
