On 18 November, Professor Fethi Mansouri and research colleagues at the Alfred Deakin Institute shared findings of two important new research reports shedding greater light on multicultural Australia, as part of a dual launch, attended by key partners and stakeholders, including Executive Dean Arts and Education Simon Tormey, Dr Hass Dellal OAM, Executive Director of the Australian Multicultural Foundation and State member of Parliament for Footscray, Ms Katie Hall MP.

Associate professor Matteo Vergani, Professor Simon Tormey, Nesreen Bottriell (AMWCHR), Dr Enqi Weng, Ms Katie Hall MP, Professor Fethi Mansouri, Vivienne Nguyen AM (VMC) and Farah Farouque (ECCV) at the launch of the Mapping Social Services Provision for Diverse Communities Report.

The Mapping Social Services Provision for Diverse Communities Report, launched by Katie Hall MP, is the product of research conducted in close partnership with the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights (AMWCHR), the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC) and the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV).

This project idea was developed many years ago through discussions with our partner organisations, to address concerns about the perceived decline in funding for multicultural service providers. The idea was further refined through numerous consultations, which provided the theoretical and empirical grounds for the successful Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP190100459).

The project aimed to investigate the perceived impact and the ideological and political drivers motivating a shift in service delivery from community specific to mainstream organisations, as informed by Australian state and federal government policies.

There is no systematic research on this shift or its socio-economic consequences for diverse migrant communities. Yet, this shift is gathering momentum in Australia and has also been reported in many other émigré countries. Often termed in the relevant literature as the mainstreaming of services, mainstream organisations are being increasingly characterised as best placed to cater to the needs of migrant communities, and community-specific service providers are seen as economically inefficient and a barrier to social integration.

Importantly, the research found that a majority of participants considered multicultural services to be important for their communities, and, for many participants, their sense of wellbeing and inclusion in Australian society are strengthened through such access.

As part of the launch, leaders from all three partner organisations, Nesreen Bottriell, CEO of AMWCHR, Farah Farouque, CEO of ECCV, and Vivienne Nguyen AM, Chairperson of VMC, provided their reflections on the research and future directions.

The Intercultural Dialogue Index (ICDI) Report, launched by Dr Hass Dellal, is the first time a composite index has been created and implemented to measure the extent to which Intercultural Dialogue is being pursued and implemented as a diversity management strategy within different countries. It was developed by Professor Fethi Mansouri and Dr Amanuel Elias, as an initiative of the UNESCO Chair of Cultural Diversity and Social Justice, at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Australia.

A large body of research has discussed intercultural dialogue (ICD) and its potential value for fostering social cohesion and peaceful coexistence across difference. However, a lack of robust benchmark data has made it difficult for researchers and practitioners to empirically test assumptions and hypotheses pertaining to ICD.

With support from UNESCO and funded by Deakin University, the ICDI uses publicly available data to measure indicators of intercultural dialogue across 52 countries. The index combines ten components across three dimensions: the legislative/policy contexts, structural foundations and intercultural opportunities that support and promote intercultural dialogue.