Session 8: Multiculturalism, Transnationalism and Nascent Pluralism

Session 8: Multiculturalism, Transnationalism and Nascent Pluralism
Chair: Klaus Zilles

British South Asian Muslims and the Future of Multiculturalism: Structural and Cultural Racisms and New Assimilationism
Tahir Abbas
Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture, Department of Sociology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

This paper is an analysis of the rationalisation of multiculturalism in the British case, especially in the post-September 11 climate and how it has been impacting on the experiences of British Muslims. It is argued that there are considerable failings of multiculturalism in the current period, with many suggesting a return to assimilation. Based on analyses of secondary data, and synthesising of primary research findings in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, media, race equality and civil society in relation to British South Asian Muslims, this paper provides an exploration of the historical and the social origins of multiculturalism in Britain, which includes a critique of liberal and communitarian political philosophy. This is followed by a closer examination of the British multiculturalism case, taking into consideration the transition from empire to post-colonial societies, anti-racist legislation and, in particular, the example of New Labour and the ways in which it has revealed the pre- and post-September 11 change in sentiment, policy and practise in relation to Britain ’s ethnic minorities. The extensive discussion engages with the issues of multiculturalism by relating it to the experience of British Muslims, providing a wider analysis of the rise and fall of multiculturalism and what it means for British Muslim ethno-religious identities, civil society, governance, international security issues, and the internationalisation of capital and labour. It is argued that the immediate future of British multiculturalism is closely associated with the experience of British Muslims, and in its current form, it does appear that a return to assimilationism is an accurate reading, but an inherently unstable reality it is too, and one that requires severe reconceptualisation in the current period in order to satisfy the demands placed upon advanced liberal democracies because of their ethnic, religious and cultural minorities. In the British case, government reaction and approach to the ‘multicultural question’ is fraught with counter-competing inconsistencies, conflating a paradigm of paternalism with that of the importance of group rights, of liberalising markets at the same as inequality, of celebrating multiculturality whilst inadvertently stigmatising and essentialising others.

Transnationalism and Migrations – Re-ascribing Meanings
Robert Imre
Department of Politics and Sociology, College of Arts, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Australia

In this paper I argue that transnationalism as a global phenomenon is rapidly changing our understanding of cultural meaning. Shifting migration patterns are fundamentally changing our understanding of culture and as such the concept of interculturalism.
I shall discuss transnationalism and its relationship to interculturalism based on recent re-thinkings of notions of culture, diaspora, and immigrant societies with reference to European, Canadian, and Australian examples. I argue here that while globalisation, as form of hyper-capitalism and hyper-modernity, appears to break down traditions as is described in the classical understanding of culture there are always new formations of culture developing. As such interculturalism, as a way of promoting understanding and cooperation also changes its meaning and purpose.
Transnationalism, and the understanding of its role in the current migration phenomena have profound implications for the way in which people understand their world. For example, dealing with cross-generational care issues in which elderly parents live in nation-states other than their children. Further, recent ‘callings of diasporas’ in which groups of people have ‘returned’ to their traditional homelands as a result of dramatic changes in social organization or economic resurgences, such as Hungary and Portugal, have reversed migration patterns and have redefined the notion of interculturalism for their societies.
This focus on transnationalism and the new migrations is fundamental to explorations of interculturalism.

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Managing Nascent Pluralism: Social and Educational Policy in Contemporary Japan
Lynne Parmenter
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

Faced with an ageing population and a declining birth rate, Japan has been reforming its immigration laws since the early 1990s in a move to ensure that the country maintains a sufficient workforce. The resultant waves of new immigrants have forced the government to re-assess and adapt policies in various spheres. The aim of this presentation is to examine the issues and responses arising from this new social, cultural, linguistic and religious pluralism in the social sphere, focussing particularly on education. The presentation will be split into the following sections:

• A brief overview of the historical and contemporary development of immigration in Japan.

• Analysis of immigration laws from the 1990s, and of public response to these laws. In this section, the government’s management of pluralism will be examined, and the media shaping of public opinion on pluralism will be discussed.

• Analysis of educational issues arising from the new cultural, social, linguistic and religious pluralism in Japan. This section will cover the management of pluralism through education policy, curriculum, employment practices and teacher training.

• Analysis of social conditions related to cultural, social, linguistic and religious pluralism. Here, a brief description of suffrage, residential rights, employment rights and housing rights will be given.

• Conclusion. It will be argued that deep-rooted contradictions exist between the government’s outward promotion of pluralism and unwillingness to change the existing social structures to make this possible. It will be stressed that, although the Japanese government is currently concerned with managing pluralism at the political and economic levels, pluralism at the social, cultural, linguistic and religious levels requires drastic overhaul of current laws, structures and practices.

All sections of the presentation will draw on literature written in Japanese and English, as well as statistical data, documents and data collected through interviews and questionnaires.