Multicultural Australia
In his article “A Linguist’s Vision for Multicultural Australia”, Professor Michael Clyne comments upon the Australian Government’s social inclusion policies, observing that they are ambiguous and confuse when it comes to fairly representing the Australian minorities in the society. Clyne discusses about Howard’s and Rudd’s governmental plans for social inclusion, which did not contain a multicultural dimension, references to including the languages of minorities in schools and concrete plans of sharing the minorities’ values and traditions throughout Australian society.
The author perceives the problem of social inclusion beyond its immediate meaning of supporting the vulnerable groups: minorities, different religions, age, gender, handicap or poverty. He considers that within the social inclusion plans there should be developed a specific cultural inclusion, because Australia has its specificities in terms of diversity and should apply different action plans for elaborating such an inclusion policy. Through his study, Clyne finds that within the Australian society can benefit of its bicultural and bilingual specificity in terms of progress. He concludes that the only solution for fostering the Australian society is to include the cultural inclusion as a component of this social inclusion.
Clyne’s vision of including a multicultural component in the social inclusion plans are founded on real needs, specific to the Australian society. But when it comes to implementing such a program, this vision might simply rest an ideology. The Australian society, as the author remarks, is composed of various minorities. Creating a common ground for each of these minorities, wherein they could all understand the others’ cultures and languages seems a utopia. However, the author is presenting a practical approach on the problem when he states that every individual living in Australia can contribute to strengthening the social inclusion through training of the mind, which is facilitated by the biculturalism and bilingualism, specificities of the society.
References
Clyne, M. (2005) A linguist’s Vision for Multicultural Australia. UNSW Press.
