Young adults’ attitudes towards multiculturalism in Australia : tensions between the multicultural state and the intercultural citizen

Kymlicka [(2003). Multicultural states and intercultural citizens. Theory and research in education, 1 (2), 147–169] worried that the ideal of an intercultural citizen, with strong intercultural skills/knowledge, would not fit neatly or simply into the ideal of a multicultural state. He identified three possible areas of tension: (1) intercultural citizens may prefer global interculturalism over local interculturalism, (2) some groups may dismiss the assertion that intercultural interaction leads to personal growth and enrichment and (3) the ideal of an intercultural citizen requires a level of understanding that is either superficial or utopian. This paper reports on attitudes towards, and experiences of, interculturalism through insights derived from focus groups with young ‘Anglo-Australian’ adults and uses these to test the concerns articulated by Kymlicka. Despite an official multicultural policy, young Australians living in Western Sydney did not express intercultural values, fully, at all times, or on all issues. The data present a difficult situation in which the participants express a fear of ‘others’ due to a lack of knowledge and understanding, but also, a reticence to gain a greater understanding of other cultures, specifically in regards to religious practices/beliefs. Arguably, Australian multiculturalism has succeeded in creating intercultural spaces (e.g. schools and universities) where young people are obliged to mix. The data, however, begs the question of whether these spaces function in a way that enables cultural interaction; of whether these spaces are safe for debate, dialogue and un-reconciled disagreement, specifically for the Anglo-Celtic youth of Western Sydney