Mapping Progress : Human Rights and International Students in Australia

The rapid growth in international student numbers in Australia in the first decade of the  2000s was accompanied by a series of public crises. The most important of these was the outbreak in Melbourne Victoria and elsewhere of physical attacks on the students. Investigations at the time also pointed to cases of gross exploitation, an array of threats that severely compromised their human rights. This paper reviews and pursues the outcomes of a report prepared by the authors in 2010 for Universities Australia and the Human Rights Commission. The report reviewed social science research and proposed a series of priorities for human rights interventions that were part of the Human Rights Commission’s considerations.  New activity, following the innovation of having international students specifically considered by the Human Rights Commission, points to initiatives that have not fully addressed the wide range of questions at state

Political Islam and the future of Australian multiculturalism

How can complex and diverse societies ensure the survival of core democratic values and the allegiance of all citizens, while respecting cultural difference? In the Australian context, these issues have been foregrounded by the presence of Muslim communities. This article argues that the discourses about Muslims and discourses by Muslims can work to reveal the dynamics for negotiating social cohesion. The political projects of mainstream Muslim communities can play a critical role in knitting together fragmented elements, and offering broader fronts through which a more integrated multicultural society can evolve. However, the potential for integration can be undermined in two ways: by political decisions in the dominant society that reject such projects, rather than engaging with them in creative and constructive directions; and by marginal groups within Muslim communities gaining greater leverage over younger people in a period of heightened apprehension occasioned by world events and Australian government reactions

Chinese Walls: Australian Multiculturalism and the Necessity for Human Rights

Australian multiculturalism is undergoing major challenges and reformulations. In part, this is due to the rapidly increasing presence of Chinese communities. In the past, 'The Chinese' were both a major trigger for the creation of and later protagonists for the abolition of White Australia. The complex and multiple layers of engagement of the Chinese in the Australian political system range from inter-governmental relations, through national political and policy issues, to local politics. Their involvement in a wide range of political parties and the interweaving of international and national politics, and economic and policy decisions, indicates political changes that may transcend the problematic of a multiculturalism constituted before the terror attacks of 2001 and before the rise of China as an international economic and political force in the wake of the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis. Moreover, the effective integration of the Chinese into Australian society may depend on how well the human rights dimension of multicultural policy is applied and conveyed to and through the Chinese population. © 2011 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Cosmopolitan Civility: understanding power and difference

The 4 Rs conference at the University of Technology Sydney in October 2008 took place less than a year after the election of the Rudd Labor government. The moment is important to capture – the government had been swept into office on a wave of hostility to the Howard conservatives, but it did not have a mandate for radical reform. Its promises had carefully targeted key constituencies – skilled workers, small business, the urban “chattering” classes, people in education, in health and in the arts (to a small extent). The government was committed to fiscal discipline with a more humane face, its great vision summarised under the rubric of “social inclusion”