The 'Culturally And Linguistically Diverse' (CALD) label: A critique using African migrants as exemplar

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

The Australasian Review of African Studies

Publisher

African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

25289

Comments

Adusei-Asante, K., & Adibi, H. (2018). The 'Culturally And Linguistically Diverse'(CALD) label: A critique using African migrants as exemplar. The Australasian Review of African Studies, 39(2), 74. Available here

Abstract

This article critiques the widely accepted official label ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ (CALD), used in Australia to refer mainly to Australia’s non-Indigenous ethnic groups other than the English-speaking Anglo-Saxon majority. Our main contention is that it is a racialised and racialising label that perpetuates institutional racism, providing a conceptual excuse for legitimising privilege and altruistic governmentality over minority groups, while inferiorising and projecting these groups as an analogous population who need ‘fixing’. The article draws on the sociological construct of labelling, through which we analyse the framing of CALD people in the literature as ‘deviants’ using Black African Migrants in Australia as exemplars. We propose that CALD labelling is counterproductive because it hinders social integration, divides people into ‘us and them’, homogenises, blurs particular lived experiences and needs, and ignores intersectional issues.

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