Up until a short time ago we relied on the statistics that had been collected at the 2006 census to get a fix on what our state looked like. Now we have some data coming out of the 2011 census that gives a far more up to date idea of exactly what our level of diversity is. There are important implications for our policy makers, our government agencies and private enterprise from these statistics that are now available. These are available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and will be disseminated to the market over the next few months.

At various times I have written about the need not to see this data as indicative of the level of multiculturalism that exists in this state but more correctly see it as a measure of the cultural diversity of the state. Let us not confuse the concepts of “Multiculturalism” and “Cultural diversity or plurality”. Multiculturalism is about the adoption of legislative and procedural mechanisms into the administrative framework of a nation to accommodate the culturally diverse community that exists in our society. Cultural diversity or plurality is about the level of difference that may exist in a community. Cultural diversity is not a contested issue. In a world that has limited or almost no sovereign boundaries and a nation that is desperately short of required skills, we will only see a greater diversity of the resident population. However, this does not translate into Multiculturalism.  Adoption of a policy of multiculturalism makes it incumbent on the government to adopt policy positions that account for the cultural differences that this diversity brings with it. This is a contested issue and will remain so whilst there is a dominant cultural mass within our society.

Herein also lies the distinction between the concept of multiculturalism that we have in Australia and those spoken about by Angela Merkel and David Cameron. Both Cameron and Merkel refer to the plurality of the population when discussing the issue. They do not have the same commitment to multiculturalism that our governments of all persuasions have shown since around 1972. Therefore drawing comparisons between these nations is fraught with difficulty.

But leaving all that to one side for a moment, let us look at the cultural diversity here in Western Australia. Firstly, let’s look at a potted summary of our current state of play:

• WA has a higher proportion of its state population born overseas than any other state in Australia. That proportion has grown from 28% in 2006 to its current level of 31%
• Over 50% (56%) of WA’s population had at least one parent born overseas.
• 15% of the population spoke a language other than English (LOTE). This is up from 11% in 2006
• We are home to people from more than 200 countries.
• We speak more than 270 languages and dialects (many Australian Aboriginal languages as well).

Drilling down further to examine some important criteria, let’s look at the place of birth statistics first.

Table 1: Top 10 countries of birth of overseas born Western Australian residents

What are the main conclusions that you can draw from this data?

1. The first and obvious one that should quieten down our Neo Nazi friends in the community is that the main place of birth continues to be England.
2. Secondly, there are no African (other than South Africa)or Middle Eastern countries in the list of the top ten above
3. Vietnam has completely dropped off the radar in the table. So too have Germany and Netherlands
4. India has moved up the list
5. The Philippines, China and Ireland are new to the list.

There is a word of caution that must be applied to users of this data. This is a measure of the places of birth of the residents of WA. So, speaking from a personal perspective, the numbers shown in the Indian born figure does not include any member of my extended family. My mother was born in Burma, my brother, elder sister and I were born in Singapore and my younger sister was born in Brunei. However, all of us identify as Indian rather than with our place of birth. Accordingly it is more important to look at the Ancestry data collected by ABS.

Table 2: Ancestry data of the WA population

This is a table that gives us a more complete picture. Now we know that the numbers of people that identify as being of Indian ancestry for example are substantially higher than the numbers of Indian born people in Western Australia. This is important data because the fact that someone is not Indian born does not diminish their practice of the culture of that country. Accordingly, services must be tailored towards the ancestry data rather than the place of birth data.

Finally a critical area of government policy will always be in the area of language specific services. It is therefore imperative that we view the data of languages spoken at home in the WA population.

Table 3: Top 10 languages spoken in WA

Again, key features of this table are as follows:

1. Indian and South Asian numbers have almost quadrupled between census dates
2. Chinese languages have risen significantly
3. Italian speaker numbers have declined
4. Philippine language numbers have also increased substantially.

The key issues for policy makers revolve around the following issues:

1. When looking at providing documents in LOTE there is a need to consider these numbers before embarking on a translation schedule.
2. Developing cultural services based on the numbers from the Ancestry table will give the best value for money
3. Worksafe and employers generally need to have regard to these issues when developing safety information in LOTE
4. Further data around the age distribution of the various language and cultural communities will also help government agencies develop targeted campaign briefs. For example, the more established communities have a much older cohort than the new and emerging communities. Accordingly, the agencies dealing with the aged will need to translate documents into the established community languages. By contrast campaigns around child and toy safety will target the new and emerging community languages.
5. In looking at language and translation programs, agencies must remember that a number of people, particularly humanitarian entrants may well be illiterate in their own language let alone in English. For these people it may be necessary for agencies to look at the provision of information in media other than the written word

Now it is over to Dr Mike Nahan, Multicultural Interests Minister in the WA State government to redress the years of inaction by his predecessor and start re-implementing the substantive equality program of the government to accommodate the cultural diversity and commit to a strong policy of multiculturalism in this state.