A Picture is worth a 1000 words

I label this photo "Multiculturalism." This is a picture captured during an international event on campus at James Cook University, Australia. Many students were invited to have a free lunch and to join an artistic activity: decorating boomerangs using the local Aboriginal designs. By looking at the photo, you might notice the ways these students are dressed and their natural appearance also reflects the diversity of their identities. Although it is impossible to tell by just looking at these students who are Australians/Australian permanent citizens and who are international students, the multiculturalism and wide range of ethnic diversities on campus are well-reflected in this picture. However, any tourist might be able to know that just like America, Australia is a multicultural country. Therefore, I will try and use my "insider" perspective to explain how it has become the country that embraces multiculturalism, and how it differs from the American model.

Let's look at the Australian history to see how multiculturalism was developed here, according to my course in Australian culture. During the latter half of the 19th century, approximately sixty-two thousands of working contracts were signed by oversea workers who came over to Australia for jobs. These contracts typically lasted three years, and then the workers were expected to return home. However, some of the workers considered themselves "old hands" and asked to stay. Then, the debate of whether or not they could stay began. At the beginning of 20th century, the Australian government prevented overseas workers from staying after their contracts expired. Around fifty years later, non-European refugees were allowed to stay for the first time, by Governor Harold Holt. After that, individuals who showed 15 years of residence in the country were allowed citizenship and the "legal" formation of a multicultural society began. In 2011, statistics showed that there were about 20% with at least 1 overseas-born parent and 53% of the population with 2 Australian-born parents. In addition, there are more than three hundred strains of ancestry that have been identified, and religious diversity is growing, with 61% of Australians being Christian, 2.5% Buddhist, 2.2% Muslim, 1.3% Hindu, and 22% declaring no religion.

Furthermore, there were one crucial similarity and one significant difference between the multiculturalism models of America and of Australia. The similarity is that the historical events which had brought those "oversea" workers/laborers were often involuntary and even traumatic. Then the consequence of that was the experiences/feelings of those workers who stayed on in the country that they had been forced to serve for many long years. The stand-out difference is that due to the geographical locations of America and Australia, Australia has had a wider range of ethnic diversities included in these forced migrations. The more recent and voluntary immigration pattern for Australia tends to be from the Pacific-Ocean countries and islands, while the initial flow of labor into America was associated more with African American slaves and European American immigrants due to America's "isolated" geography and its colonial and slavery histories.

In short, through my experience living in both America and Australia, I'd claim that Australian people tend to "blend" their diversities more than American people do. You would only tend to see American big cities as the places of diversity, and such diversity decreases as you visit the suburbans and countrysides. The fact that the photo was captured in Townsville, a small city in Australia, demonstrates that multiculturalism thrives well in Australia even outside its big cities.