A New Era in Australian Multiculturalism? From Working-Class “Ethnics” to a “Multicultural Middle- Class”

Abstract

This article analyses the changing socio‐economic profile of the “multicultural” section of the Australian population, in the past officially referred to as people of “non‐English‐speaking background” (NESB). After importing low‐skilled NESB labor to service the manufacturing boom of the post‐war decades, at the end of the 1970s, following economic restructuring, the Australian immigration program was refocused on skilled intake which resulted in immigrants increasingly becoming a middle‐class demographic. Over the past three decades, a “multicultural middle class” (MMC) has been created from two sources: the intake of highly skilled NESB immigrants and upwardly mobile second and third migrant generations. The article documents this demographic change using census and immigration data, and discusses what it may mean for the future of Australian multiculturalism, which, according to many analysts, is in crisis and requires re‐articulation.

Social change and community cohesion: an ethnographic study of two Melbourne suburbs

“…For example, a 'multicultural middle class' has been created through skilled immigration post-1980, the social mobility of the second immigrant generation and the creation of a small core of urban indigenous middle class, with all these groups now visibly present in professions, business and public offices, alongside Anglo-Australians. This situation sharply contrasts with post-war decades when Anglo-Australians and British immigrants were separated from non-Anglophone immigrants in a segmented labour market (Colic-Peisker 2011;Collins 1991;Colic-Peisker and Hlavac 2014).…”

Status-making: Rethinking migrant categorization

“…In sociological studies, migrants in Australia are most often differentiated and categorized along ethnic and cultural, or occasionally class (see for example Colic-Peisker, 2011;Collins, 2003;Limpangog, 2013) lines. Ethnic and cultural identities in Australia, however, are becoming increasingly complex, multiple and hybrid due to diversification of migration patterns, inter-marriage and generational change (Ang et al, 2006;Harris, 2009).…”

Policy Narratives versus Everyday Geographies: Perceptions of Changing Local Space in Melbourne's Diverse North

“…Australian cities present a complex picture of the distribution of ethnic diversity and socioeconomic disadvantage. With the social mobility of second and third generations and changing patterns of immigration (especially selective skill‐based intakes since the 1980s) the historical overlap of ethnicity and socioeconomic disadvantage in Australia has become less clear‐cut (Colic‐Peisker ). While in some cases working‐class enclaves have transformed into gentrified, yet no less diverse middle‐class suburbs, others have emerged out of de‐industrialization with reconfigured concentrations of disadvantage, as new and heterogeneous waves of residents have arrived (Burnley ; Turner ).…”