National multiculturalism and transnational migrant politics: Australian and East Timorese

Abstract

As globalization accelerates, transnational pressures play an increasingly important role in political culture. Cultural linkages created by migration can be sustained and reproduced, allowing migrant groupings to maintain a role as movers for social change. Such linkages open up possibilities for mutual engagement or dialogue across the external-internal boundaries of national statehood. These issues are illustrated by the relatively small East Timorese refugee community living in Australia, which has forged a distinctive diasporic identity and has successfully invoked a transnational sphere of politics around issues of self-determination, human rights and multiculturalism. In tandem, many non-Timorese have questioned Australian commitment to these principles within Australia as well as in relation to East Timor. This process of transnational contestation leads to the emergence of cross-national communities of conscience, and points to the possibility of multicultural interaction beyond national borders.