Criticism of multiculturalism

Criticism of multiculturalism questions the ideal of the maintenance of distinct ethnic cultures within a country. Multiculturalism is a particular subject of debate in certain European nations that are associated with the idea of a single nation within their country. Critics of multiculturalism may argue against cultural integration of different ethnic and cultural groups to the existing laws and values of the country. Alternatively critics may argue for assimilation of different ethnic and cultural groups to a single national identity.

Another kind of criticism regarding multiculturalism involves a more thorough understanding of the 'host' nation's colonial history. Sneja Gunew's book Haunted Nations: The Colonial Dimensions of Multiculturalism dissects multiculturalism as a governmental strategy, which among other things serves to manage the nation's minority immigrants. According to Gunew's research, multiculturalism can serve as a mask for societies which would prefer to be perceived as "transcendently homogeneous in spite of their heterogeneity". Thus, the colonial dimensions of the nation's history proves to drastically affect a 'minority's' formation of identity, while also commodifying 'cultural difference' as fetish.

Rifts within Australian society, right through history, whether between the continent's Indigenous people and the European settler population or, in recent times, inter-ethnic tension manifest in the form of riots, street violence and ethnic gangs pose major challenges to multiculturalism in the country.

The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been varied. A nationalist, anti-mass immigration party, the One Nation Party, was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed brief electoral success, most notably in its home state of Queensland, but became electorally marginalized until its resurgence in 2016. In the late 1990s, One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism alleging that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture."

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