‘We’re Multicultural Mate!’ Understanding Multiculturalism in Australia

Abstract

In this chapter, respondents who identify as ‘white Australians’ and are Australian-born talk about multiculturalism, refugees, and national identity. The point of this chapter is to analyse the complexities of ‘everyday understandings’ of several discourses. White Australia and multiculturalism are discourses intended to understand differences, including differences associated with migrants and refugees. National identity is a discourse of belonging to the country. How do these discourses speak to each other? How do they engage with Indigenous sovereignty? The central argument is that the social and political history of a ‘white Australia’ continues to inform the terms of multiculturalism and ignore Indigenous sovereignty.