During the recent visit to Manila of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a strategic partnership was signed with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. consisting of a framework for closer cooperation and a strong alignment of strategic interests. Boosting the ties between the governments, four initiatives were rolled out, viz.:
1) Australia Awards scholarships to double current numbers; 50 scholarships for 2024 will be awarded to Filipinos for Masters and PhD programs in Australia;
2) The re-establishment of a Philippines Institute at Australian National University to boost ANU's ties with Southeast Asia and deepen shared understanding of perspectives and interests;
3) A new reciprocal Work and Holiday visa for Australians and Filipinos in support of stronger economic, cultural and people-to-people links;
4) A $64.5-million contribution to peacebuilding in conflict-affected Mindanao via a five-year program to reduce violent conflict, reintegrate former combatants, and support community development for women.
In no small measure, thus, the Philippines stands to benefit from this partnership never before initiated in regional cooperation history. There's reason to believe the trajectory of this partnership will augur well for qualified students, academicians, constituents in far-flung Mindanao, women and the like. The Australian government has just opened "windows of opportunity" to anyone chasing the so-called "Australian dream" — to study, live or work there.
As a good and earlier nucleus of these developments, in the recently concluded 18th Asia Pacific Sociological Association Conference held at the University of Sydney (USYD) last 2-4 July, scholars and experts from around the world showcased their works and networked with other researchers on the theme: "Diversity, Inclusion and Social Cohesion: Towards social and environmental advancement and sustainable development goals attainment."
Australia's brand of multi-culturalism is nothing new, the reason people from every part of Europe, the United States, United Kingdom, China, India, even the Philippines — among others — have been flocking to this continent in search of greener pastures. The Filipino presence reflects a negligible portion, while the Indian presence fares significantly better per available geopolitical data.
Dear readers, the conference inspired this author to present a paper titled, "A glimpse of the co-existence of people of diverse cultures in Australia," which was fairly well-received, with a more rounded elaboration by experts on the subject during the plenary presentation.
Truly, for diversity, inclusion, and social cohesion to come together in sync and in harmony between and among people of different cultures ought to be a "deeply mysterious phenomenon."
It's interesting to realize how cultural mixing carries the "opium," if we may call it that, that could foster intergroup attitudes and hasten integrated identities in the multicultural landscape of Australia.
It's theorized that in the cultural dimension of this Australian experience, there ought to be a "color-blind" pathway to ignoring cultural differences which precisely incentivizes achieving sustainable development goals.
Such acculturation and assimilation have done well to harmonize inherent issues of cultural identity and ideology. We should no longer indulge in debates that in acculturation, the weaker of two cultures adopts traits of the more dominant one; whereas in assimilation, original traits of the weaker culture are completely erased and replaced by the more dominant culture.
However, it never should call for any type of "tug-of-war" between majority and minority groups or any form of racism or discrimination as either or both could only make social integration or assimilation a slippery slope.
At the end of the presentation, we put forth the commonly held view that there's no such thing as "mainstream Australian society," for in contemporary Australia "diversity is the mainstream." As a matter of fact, as long as we embrace pro-diversity as a mindset, the perception of a so-called "Anglo-Celtic cultural privilege" would just be coming out of thin air and mean nothing.
In Australia, there cannot be "ethnic ghettos," "mainstream blocks," or racism amid a national anti-racism campaign dubbed, "Racism, It Stops with Me."
