Internationally, myriad policies and programs are designed to create a multicultural environment to encourage interactions between culturally different groups and promote international student engagement. Despite these efforts, social and cross-cultural integration remains hard to achieve, as there is a glass wall between cultural groups that prevent the progress of multiculturalism. Acknowledging that, this chapter critically reflects on the theoretical and practical development of multiculturalism with a special focus on higher education policies. Taking Australian universities as an example, it uses textual analysis to examine how the policies of prominent Australian universities address the issues of multiculturalism. It argues that while some achievements have been obtained, a more critical, inclusive mindset should be taken to further innovate the existing policies.
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With the winds of globalisation and the advance of technology, human mobility has been directly promoted, making immigrants become a critical part of Western societies (Li, et al., 2021). Fuelled by the increased number of temporary and permanent visa holders, cultural hybrids and conflicts are beginning to emerge (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). As such, multiculturalism is a challenge for modern societies, both economically, politically, and socially (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). Internationally, some Western countries have been critiqued for unsuccessfully political practices in integrating immigrants, and thus failing to create a multicultural society (Allen, 2018; Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). This failure causes the separation of communities and leads to the emerged internal enemies within the society (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). Such an issue has provoked heated discussions in politics, academia, and the general public (Canen & Canen, 2001; Nada & Araújo, 2019). For example, the current practices of multicultural policies have been marked as an utter failure by the German Chancellor, whose declaration is espoused by France’s Sarkozy (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020).
The idea of a multicultural society can be seen as a response to the changing society since the late 1900s (Allen, 2018). For this reason, the idea is largely grounded in political theories, including critical race theory (Boese & Marotta 2017), post-structural theory (Allen, 2018), and post-development theory (McGregor, 2009). These explorations have provided a meaningful avenue that encourages more scholarly inquiries, two versions of multiculturalism have been proposed – normative and constructive. The former version, normative multiculturalism, is also known as strong multiculturalism, which is derived from the idea that cultures are “objective, immutable and reified” (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020, p. 10). This thought stresses the justification of protecting national cultures from incoming immigrant ones (Boese et al., 2017). At the same time, it has been utilised to literate discriminated and disadvantaged cultural groups (Benhabib, 2002). In the political field, it is applied to protect the traditional habits, languages, and customs of a nation (Lomer, 2017; Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). However, this version has been critiqued for overlooking the aspect of cultural equality, meaning that some cultures have unequal opportunities for development while some are overly emphasised. Such treatment can lead to the homogeneity of culture.
The latter version, constructive multiculturalism, is defined as weak multiculturalism (Grillo, 2007). It is developed from the thought that cultures are dynamic processes shaped by ever-changing contexts, environments, and relationships (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). Thus, culture is not conclusively. Such a definition rejects the idea that cultures are static and deterministic and further highlights the diversity within the same cultural group (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). As Torres (2017) points out, constructive multiculturalism seeks to establish a fair system for culturally diverse people to live together. In this regard, this version prompts politicians and scholars to redefine the traditional notion of citizenship by embracing a more liberal and open attitude toward cultural differences. In modern society, it is not difficult to find that constructive multiculturalism has directed some political practices (Lomer, 2017). For example, in North American, Bouchard and Taylor’s (2008) model of accommodating cultural diversity has been widely used. However, it is arguably difficult to achieve unity in diversity, and it is challenging to approach multicultural society in a productive yet peaceful manner (Torres & Tarozzi, 2020). In the globalised world, the task – the creation of a multicultural environment – is urgent and tough (Barker, 2012).