An audit by the Australian Social Inclusion (SI) Board of equality and disadvantage in Australia, released for Australia Day, finally responds to critics' concerns that cultural diversity was being sidelined by the SI Agenda. In a careful working of Census and related data, the Report examines issues to do with ageing, with cultural diversity and community safety, and with economic and financial disadvantage.

In this blog I will lay out the results that the Report discloses, and then reflect on what the implications for policy might be. The release of the report by SIB chair Patricia Faulkner foregrounds the importance of dealing with multiple disadvantages - and recent migrancy and humanitarian/refugee status can be part of that picture.

The Report acknowledges (after much negative feedback on its previous analyses) "the critical link between discrimination and social exclusion and the need to include experiences of discrimination as an indicator of social inclusion/exclusion. Discrimination may take a number of forms. Race discrimination can be based on appearance, ethnicity, culture and faith. People may also feel discriminated against because of their age, a disability or their sexuality"(p.11). The report uses selected research sponsored by the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Scanlon Foundation and the Australian Research Council, as core government departments have no information or data on discrimination and ethno-cultural exclusion. The Board records the Scanlon finding that about 10% of non-English speaking background respondents have experienced discrimination. Furthermore it states unequivocally that discrimination can "reduce people's participation in a wide range of economic, social and community activities".

 

The consequences of this become apparent in discussion of "participation". For instance, "People born in non-English speaking countries and not proficient in English were much less likely to be involved in at least one community group (53%) compared with those proficient in English (69%), those born in Australia (73%) and those born in other English speaking countries (75%). The differences were greatest for participation in community support groups, with those born in Australia were three times more likely to be involved in a community support group (36%) than a person born overseas and not proficient in English (12%)" (p.35,36). So marginalisation increases as language skills in English decline. This finding is hardly rocket science, but it does point to why ethno-cultural and linguistic exclusion has to be right up there with economic and other forms of problems - and why social inclusion must have an ethno-cultural and linguistic priority and set of strategies (sadly lacking to date). More to come as I work through the report. Comments welcome!