Will Australia’s new multiculturalism road map help boost migrants’ ‘sense of belonging’?

A new government report in Australia has recommended nearly 30 steps to enhance the nation’s cultural diversity, including offering citizenship tests in multiple languages and the creation of a dedicated commission for multicultural affairs.

Observers have praised the Department of Home Affairs’ Multicultural Framework Review released on Wednesday and its ambitious reform agenda, but stress that its success hinges on effective implementation.

Canberra did not publicly accept the report’s recommendations but said it was “committed to the framework’s principles”. It has also made a commitment of A$100 million (US$65.6 million) towards “supporting a stronger multicultural Australia”.

Ten of the recommendations were marked as high priority, including the offering of citizenship tests in other non-English languages, to recognise and preserve the cultural heritage of migrants and strengthen “a sense of belonging”, the report said.

The deterioration of this sense of belonging, amid rising discrimination and prejudice, prompted the commissioning of the review more than a year ago.

“I think the idea of allowing for more languages is a good thing. We actually don’t technically have a national language in Australia. We do have English, but we don’t actually pronounce that,” said Carlo Carli, chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia.

“Realistically, our migration has never really been dependent on everyone being absolutely fluent in English.”

But that alone would not help migrants with the citizenship process or migrating into Australia, said Tharini Rouwette who runs Allies in Colour, a national independent body representing culturally and racially marginalised people in Australia.

Migrants face much bigger