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Contributing Editor Jules also blogs at Dragon Girl
A month or two ago, the Australian Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, made a speech in which he basically told immigrants to Australia to adopt Australian values or go home. Kind of an interesting move when you consider that Australia is such a young country (just over 200 years old), when the majority of the population are immigrants, and when no one has really been able to define what "Australian values" are.
It has made me think about national and ethnic identity: When does someone stop being Greek/Chinese/Italian/whatever, and start being Australian? All of my ancestors came out to Australia as free settlers (oh to have a convict ancestor - that is the ultimate in "cool" when it comes to Australian genealogy!), from England, Scotland, Germany, Spain and Sweden in the late 1800's. I have friends whose parents and grandparents immigrated to Australia, who are much more Aussie than I am. But I also have friends who deny their national identity, in favour of their ethnic identity. Friends who'll say "I'm Greek" when they were born in Australia, don't speak Greek, have never been to Greece, have an Anglo first and last name, and who's sole reason for the claim is that one set of Great-Grandparents came to Australia from Greece. I don't understand how they can identify so strongly with a culture that they have never lived in.
And I'm also wondering if the Great Melting Pot Experiment has been declared dead. It used to be that we would emphasise our similarities, whereas now everyone seems intent on pointing out their differences.
Can you have both a national and ethnic identity? And how does a nation of immigrants define a set of values that is inclusive of all ethnic groups that make up society?
