‘I See People White but I’m too Black’: Whiteness and the Interpretation of Multicultural Belonging in Australia

ABSTRACT

Australian multiculturalism emerged as national policy in the 1970s following contentious immigration policies designed to limit the entry of non-white immigrants. Multiculturalism frames articulations of national belonging in terms of broad moral implications and the immigration policy from which such implications stem. Paradoxically, discourses central to the multicultural ideal, such as integration and tolerance, can act to limit people’s experience of social belonging by providing scope for demonstrations of Anglo-Celtic heritage as a form of symbolic capital. I explore the ways non-white young people with refugee backgrounds interpret whiteness in relation to multiculturalism and negotiate their sense of belonging in Brisbane, Australia. I discuss the link between whiteness and multiculturalism from the perspectives of these young people and demonstrate the various ways in which they interpret Australian national belonging as intrinsically linked to skin color. By alternately highlighting and evading their own racialized sense of themselves, young people exhibit a multiplicity of possibilities for belonging and respond to the political context of their own lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiculturalism
• whiteness
• refugee belonging
• youth
• identity

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Although Burma was officially renamed Myanmar in 1989, my participants, and therefore I, refer to it here as Burma. The majority of refugees currently residing in Australia who identify as Burmese are officially classified as Bamar political refugees.

2 All personal names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Moran

Laura Moran holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology for the University of Queensland and a master’s degree in Anthropology from Oxford University. Her current research explores issues of youth identity, the refugee experience and multiculturalism.