Multiculturalism as a Conservative Ideology: Impacts on Workforce Diversity

Abstract

This paper is critical of Australian multicultural policy and the way it has been applied to the workplace. It also questions the likely impact of recent government policy relating to asylum seekers and multiculturalism on diversity management generally. The paper argues that multicultural policy was never intended to challenge existing power relations between ethnic groups, but rather it entrenched the superiority of one dominant group within an Anglo, male-centred middle-class framework. However, past government policies were less hostile towards minority cultures and groups than the present. Current developments in Australian race relations lead the authors to pose a number of major research principles and questions. These questions flow out of recent case study research and perceived research gaps related to that work.