Sharing the halal snack-pack: multiculturalism as neo-assimilation in Australia

In Australia and around the globe, debates over multiculturalism, integration and the vexed issue of cultural tolerance versus national security have raged across political and media forums. This includes events in the UK, the USA and the re-emergence of the One Nation party in Australia. The intensification of anti-immigration/anti-multiculturalism debates serves as a contradictory discourse to the prevailing globalization agenda. This configuration situates a seemingly progressive stance on cultural diversity as easy bedfellows with neoliberal economics. Employing a ‘post-multiculturalism’ framework, this paper argues that within the current socio-political conditions, diversity operates solely at a representational level, with migrant subjects assimilated into regimented forms of economic citizenship, described by the author as ‘neo-assimilation’. This process is illustrated via two recent media examples: the first an interview between former Labour senator Sam Dastyari and One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson, the second an appearance by young Syrian-born Australian residents Omar and Saad Al Kassab on the ABC discussion programme Q&A – where the subjects are self-represented as politically benign through their incorporation into the logic of neoliberalism.