Everyday Multiculturalism in Australia

This paper provides some information about everyday multiculturalism in Australia. First I give some background to multiculturalism in the Australian context, and look particularly at the backlash against multiculturalism and the new focus on social cohesion that has come in its wake, in both Australia and other Western nations known for high cultural diversity. I then discuss some of my recent research on young people in Australia’s culturally diverse cities that shows some of the limitations of this new social cohesion approach that has emerged in the anti-multiculturalism era. In particular, I suggest that it fails to capture some of the ways that young people are living productively with difference.